and, of course, on everybody's mind, who might have been hurt as a result of this terrible, terrible incident. we're going to be talking to more eyewitnesses coming up in just a few minutes. >> we are back at 9:00 eastern time on this tuesday morning. and we're back with dramatic pictures of an accident that has happened just a short time ago. you're looking at the world trade center in lower manhattan where just a few minutes ago we're told a plane, some reports are that it was a small commuter plane, crashed into the upper floors of one of the twin towers. you can see fire and flames or smoke billowing from that tower. there is a gaping hole on the north side of the building. that's the side you're seeing to the left-hand side of your screen right now. and other damage to the west side of that building which is to the right side of your screen. this, of course, happened just before the morning commute,

before people were heading into their offices and while i'm sure some people were already at work, immediately there are speculation or cause for concern this is the world trade center that was the center of a terrorist bombing some years ago. so the questions have to be asked was this purely an accident or could this have been an intentional act. either way, extensive damage done to this building. >> also looks like smoke coming out of the east side of the building. looks like white smoke billowing out. >> horrified commuters were absolutely devastated when they heard this explosion. we talked with somebody a moment ago about that. jennifer overstien. and another eye witness, elliott walker, a producer on the "today" show. >> hi, katie. >> tell me what you saw. >> i live in this area. i returned to my apartment. i was walking down the sidewalk delivering my young daughter to school. and we heard a very loud sound, the kind of sound you hear when

a plane is, you know, going fast past you. followed by an enormous crash and an immediate explosion. i don't think we could feel shockwaves but we sort of felt like we did. and we were in a position where we could see the trade center almost immediately between the other buildings. and an enormous fireball that must have been 300 feet across was visibility immediately. a secondary explosion, i think. and then plumes of smoke. there must have been a three-block cloud of white smoke. now, from where i was on the street a moment ago, you can, in fact, see smoke leaving the building on three sides. it seems to be coming out on at least four or five floors. the air is filled with hundreds of thousands of pieces of paper that are just sort of floating like confetti. the area is swarmed with emergency vehicles and sirens. obviously we're very sensitive to this kind of thing in this

neighborhood. >> of course, because of the incident that occurred in the early 1990s. have you seen any evidence, elliott, of people being taken out of the building? you say that emergency vehicles are there, understandably so. but, of course, the major concern is -- >> oh, my goodness. >> human loss. do you know if there were many people -- >> t another one just hit. something else just hit. a very large plane just flew directly over my building and another collision. can you see it? i can see it on the shot. something else. >> we just saw a plane circling the building. we just saw a plane circling the building. a second ago on the shot right before that. >> i think there may have been another impact. can you tell? i just heard another very loud bang and a very large plane that might have been a dc-9 or 747 just flew past my window. i think it may have hit the trade center again. >> i didn't get the impression it was that big a plane. >> it looked big from here. >>y see a plane go by a second ago though and it has now

impacted the building. i'm trying to see if it was the different tower. >> the first one was world trade center one and it looks from what i'm seeing on television the second building was hit. >> we're going to see a piece of tape and we may actually see another plane enter the picture here in just a second. >> i wonder there are air traffic control problems. >> let's go back to jennifer. did you see this happen? >> hello. >> jennifer. >> did you see this happen, jennifer? >> matt, i -- i've never seen -- it looks like a movie. i saw a larnlg plage plane, lik, so immediately into the world trade center. it just flew into it, into the other tower coming from south to north. i watched the plane fly into the world trade center. it was a jet. it was a very large plane. it was going south past the hotel being built and battery park. it flew right past, almost hit it and then went in. >> this is so shocking. of course, to everybody watching. >> i've never seen anything like it. it literally flew itself into

world trade center. >> obviously now we move from what appears to have been -- there it is right there. >> again. i'm looking from south to north. it went into the one on the right. >> that appeared to be at least a 727. we saw the second ago. here comes the videotape that we just showed you. you will see what appears to be a large plane. it could be a 727, right there, maybe even bigger, flying right into the side of the world trade center. >> it was at least a 727. it was a jet. i couldn't believe my eyes watching it right above me. >> and now you have to move from talk about a possible accident to talk about something deliberate that has happened here. we're going to immediately check with air traffic control in the area to find out if they had contact with either of these planes before the accident. but what we've just seen is about the most shocking videotape i've ever seen. >> what are the odds of two separate planes into both towers. >> elliott, are you still there? >> hello?

>> elliott. >> yes, i'm still here, katie. >> elliott, what can you see now from your perspective? >> i don't face in that direction. i can't see anything personally. >> it is completely impossible to understand why this is happening. and to figure out what in the world is going on. >> i think we have to be -- >> it's now after 9:00 a.m. i just wonder how many people are in those offices. >> hopefully they were evacuated following the first incident and we can only hope that it was a very short period of time from when we first learned about this was probably about 8:50 person time. the second incident occurred about 9:05. and so obviously that would be a short amount of time to get people out of the building. ollie everhart is another witness on the ground. ollie, can you hear me? >> yes, hello. >> please tell me what you're seeing. >> i live in lower manhattan. i face the north tower, the north side where the first plane crashed into the building.

and right now there's a lot of chaos on the ground, a lot of emergency vehicles. everyone from the world financial center has exited and is walking north up to battery park north. there's just mass and mass of people walking north uptown of manhattan. i was happened to look on the first tower and actually saw people waving where the first plane crashed through and then it was unbelievable seeing the second jet come crashing into the second tower. what is going on? >> unfortunately here in new york, many of our stations cannot see this, local stations, because the antennas are on the world trade center. they're there are backup towers on the center. but telecommunication is probably knocked off the air. >> the picture here where it appears because of the angle, i think, that the towers are leaning and i don't think that

that is actually the case because after the first impact, it looked as if it was -- the left-hand -- the right-hand tower was leaning. and now somebody is saying that we're getting a witness saying they are leaning actually right now which will give you the idea of the type of impact we're talking about. >> and that perhaps they're buckling under the force of the collision or the hole that's resulted from these two planes. >> we're going to go to george right now who has also witnessed both of one of these collisions. george, can you hear us? >> i can hear you. >> what did you see, george? >> i was in a car driving up battery tunnel driving north on west street when an enormous explosion happened. i think it was larger than a construction explosion. i looked out the window and what appears to be enormous tire smash into the ground. i believe it hit the car to the right of me. and it was just so scary and there was also a ton of debris fall. and i jumped out of the car and i ran south away from the buildings because i thought

there would be further explosions. >> and have you seen anyone injured on the ground, george? >> a man next to me was actually hit by a piece of debris in the arm. and they said that someone had been badly hurt in a car ahead of me. i'm not certain if it was the car next to me. i can't verify that. all i can say is a lot of debris was falling and very confusing because everybody, iy assumed a exploded and that's had people thinking that further bombs may explode. there was a rush away. >> did you see, george, the second plane, that jet, fly into the other twin tower? >> i heard two explosions, hour. there was a first explosion that was louder and then a second explosion. and but i could not see that. i looked up and when i looked up i saw debris falling and the tire, as i said, a very large tire. >> of course, this is, as we have said, completely shocking

video and shocking turn of events. and we've been talking here that the first incident one might surmise that it was some kind of accident and then to have a accident what appeared to be 727 jet, of course, the question of terrorist activity has to surface and the question of whether this was an intentional terrorist act of some kind. >> you know, keep in mind that we're in an area where there are three major airport, kennedy, laguardia, all within several miles of the world trade center. it's very unusual for a plane to get into this area without being completely tracked or identified by air traffic control. so you would have to imagine that, a, if this plane were headed right to the world trade center there must have been someone trying to talk or communicate with that pilot, and, for it to fly right into the side of the building. >> the smaller plane, you can understand almost. but a jumbo jet, a large jet,

completely -- >> let's rerack that video, if we could, down in the control room where we actually saw the jet flying into the building. unbelievable. >> elliott walker said it was a big plane. i was looking in the distance and saw a small plane which might have been a el copter. to see this plane come into the picture. that is a big plane. and i mean, it's hard to imagine, it's a 737, we're now being told. and flying directly into the mid section of the what would be the eastern tower of the world trade center. >> i'm wondering if jennifer overstein is still on the phone. do we still have jennifer on the phone? she's is not on the phone. she was near a police officer. at least we could have perhaps gotten more information from that officer. needless to say, it's pandemoni pandemonium, i am sure, down there. we gather that from the eyewitnesses with whom we have spoke and how terrifying this was for them to see. and you can only imagine when

you get closer to the twin towers, a new york landmark, how -- what the scene must be like there. >> you talked about the building looking like they're buckling. they're designed to have a two-degree sway in either direction because of the height of the building and to be able to deal with wind and stress. but something like that is more than it's probably designed for. >> we want to go now, al, to jane who i understand is television producer here in new york. jane, can you hear me? >> yes, i can hear you. i'm down here near the world trade center. i was walking down sixth avenue this morning at 8:42 a.m. a group of us saw a plane veer through the building, then we saw a huge cloud of smoke. and then fire came out of one of the towers. near the upper floor as you can probably see with your chopper shots. and then about ten minutes ago, a second explosion in the second tower. lower down, that was not affected by the plane, so i'm not quite sure what happened there. but right now there's a huge

gaping hole in one of the towers and the other building is on fire. the scene down here is incredible. people are out of their office buildings watching, crying, taking pictures. i've never seen anything like it down here. >> jane, you said you saw the first plane. did you get a glimpse of what kind of plane that was? we were told it was a small commuter plane. >> well, it looked -- it wasn't a cessna or anything like that. it was a larger plane, a mid-size plane. and we could hear it very low. and walking down the street, a couple of us looked at each other thinking, what's happening. then it veered drastically on its side through the buildings and then went into the upper floors of the world trade center tower. >> we want to just mention that when the impact hit the first tower, you would hope that people who were in the second tower were beginning to evacuate, especially if air traffic control had some indication this was deliberate, you would hope they were starting to get people out of

the other tower before this second plane hit that tower. >> although -- >> if you tried to go up, we've been upstairs in the world towers in the restaurant there, to try to get down. >> i mean, the elevators would have been jammed, no question. if there was an indication that this is deliberate you would hope they would immediately begin evacuation in the second tower. >> we have another eye witness. dan is on the phone. dan, tell me where you are and what you're seeing or what you saw. >> what i saw was one plane coming in low from the north down over 7th avenue. it crashed into the top or the middle of one of the towers. ten minutes later, i saw another plane crash into the other side of the tower at a lower level. it looked to me a small, you know, commercial plane, the first plane that i saw. it crashed into the top of the tower. and there was a huge fireball,

and there was a gaping hole in the side of the tower. as we were waiting outside and looking at it, another plane came in low. i believe from the other side, and hit the sort of the middle of the other tower. now, i saw both planes, two separate planes, crash into each tower. >> and, dan, again, the size of the planes, tell me about that. >> i would say that the plane was a mid-size commercial airline. i don't know. i thought perhaps, you know, a commercial airline, a mid-size, not, you know, not a jumbo jet. >> this, of course, is unconfirmed but we are getting information from an employee of united airlines, and again, we want to emphasize this is unconfirmed, that there is speculation that an american airlines plane was high jacketed and crashed purposely, on purpose, into the world trade

center and the second plane was another plane perhaps hijacked, was then flown into the second tower. dan, tell me about, on the ground. are you at a vantage point where you can see what's happening on the ground? >> i'm farther up in the west village. i'm noting on the ground near the base of the towers. >> where were you? >> walking down 7th avenue at about, oh, charles street, which is about 15 or 20 blocks north of the towers. >> well, obviously this was a shocking thing for you to witness on this tuesday morning. you know, with some wires just came out and said in 1945 an army airport corps b-25, twin-engine bomber crashed into the 79th floor of the empire state building. that occurred in dense fog. this was a critical clear day in manhattan. it is completely unclear how there would be any kind of problems with visibility. dan, thank you so much for

talking with us. hopefully you can stay on the phone and we can check back in with you at another point in time. we really appreciate it. >> you're welcome. >> we want to also report that remind people that world trade center bombing that took place on february 26th back in 1993, the product of a terrorist attack, the result of a terrorist attack, that killed six people and injured more than a thousand. of course that happened on a friday afternoon. i think, matt, you and al were working that day. >> we were. >> i know i was at home in virginia watching it in disbelief. and now it feels a bit like deja vu. this is so much more by very. >> and keep in mind that killed six people, injured a thousand. the explosion happened in a garage in a basement. this is a direct hit on the mid section or upper section of the towers. so the potential for injuries and death much larger. of course, also some people on the planes. >> yeah, that's right. exactly. if they were hijacked and on route to a different destination, of course, this story continues to unfold.

bob kerr joins us now. bob, where are you and what can you tell us? >> katie, good morning. i'm on the north lawn at the white house. the first thing looked for mere in light of what's happened is whether there is any unusual activity out here. whether there's an unusual police or secret service presence, people on the roof, that sort of thing. we don't see that as we speak. i did try to call the national security office here, as you know, the president is out of town. he is in florida. we're told he has been informed of this. i can tell you that the white house, national security staff that remains here is in a senior level meeting and we are hoping to hear from them as soon as possible. but, katie, the reaction here to the pictures you're seeing and to the initial pictures when they came up, even if what's called the lower press office here at the white house, was one of shock. i mean, people are just standing around television monitors looking at this. and when i say people, i don't mean just the reporters. i mean, the people who are

actually in the office who work here at the white house. >> so very little information is coming out of the white house at this juncture, but needless to say, if the speculation is true about some kind of terrorist event, this will be a major, major crisis for the bush administration. jim is at the pentagon now. are you hearing any more information there? >> according to u.s. intelligence official, katie, there appeared, at least to their knowledge, to be no specific threat involving hijacking airliners or any attacks on buildings in the new york area. u.s. intelligence officials report this morning that there are -- they constantly are hearing about threats, possible terrorist threats against american targets worldwide. but as far as they know this morning, they had no early indications that anything of this nature could have occurred.

pentagon officials are already calling this a terrorist attack. they say that they have not yet ordered the scrambling of any military jets. if national guard were to be scrambled in that area, that would be at the order of the governor. of course, the president does have the authority to scramble american military forces in defense but there's a problem here. what now do you defend against exactly? if you put warplanes in the air, there's always a danger that they could misidentify a pilot's intention, although i believe, according to officials here, they are now off limits and restricted. but so far, the u.s. military and pentagon officials are scrambling to get as much information as they possibly can

to determine what course of action, if any, the u.s. military would take. >> but, they are describing this as a terrorist attack right now. >> there are some officials here in the pentagon who are calling this an obvious terrorist attack based on very preliminary information. the information that intelligence officials are getting in terms of a possible hijacked plane and, of course, the very horrifying video of the plane veering in to the tower itself is a clear indication to everyone here that this is not an accident. >> all right. thanks. of course, the coordination that took place to have too two planes hit the towers within 18 minutes of one another. let's go back to the white house now. bob kerr is still standing by there. >> matt, it was interesting to listen to jim there from the pentagon. of course, the president has the authority to scramble military courses and this is a case obviously in which retaliation, if indeed it proves to be a

terrorist incident, will be contemplated. but the usual course of events is, it's an investigation. you know, unless someone steps forward, claims responsibility, the white house and other arms of the u.s. government will say we have to determine who is responsible for this attack, try to pinpoint it, and then the u.s. usually says, someone is going to be made to pay. but that is a big if, if we can determine exactly the origin of this terrorist attack. and so there are some implications to that. >> let's go back to jirnlgs bob. thank you. you have more information? >> bob's exactly right. but what which their primary concern right now is protecting the american public in the new york area right now against any possible further attacks by the air. they have no indications there will be, but there is some concern highly coordinated attack that there may be other

terrorist attacks that could be planned either in new york or elsewhere. this is absolutely the worst case scenario for the counter terrorist planners because apparently, according to -- scrambling the u.s. military, it would be for protection for the time being and not necessarily even thinking right now about any kind of retaliation. >> david gregory is now on the phone. >> where he's following the president. >> that's right. david? >> yes, katie, the president is about to begin an education event which is obviously being canceled. the event will go forward insofar the president. we expect momentarily will come out and make a statement about this. he was made aware on route from his hotel to this school here in sarasota where he was going to talk about education.

he will make a statement. and then we're told by white house officials he will quickly depart for washington. >> we should mention, david, new york city airport or new york area airports have all been closed. the lincoln tunnel has been closed here in new york. while we're getting ready to listen to the president, let's go back to jat the pentagon. you talked about counter tres measures. can you shed any light for us on what kind of things are in place in the event of an attack of this nature? >> it's difficult for the u.s. military to respond to this kind of thing at, you know, right now, because it's unclear exactly who's behind it and if there are any other potential attacks or incidents like this because this is obviously not been officially declared a terrorist attack but all the experts who are looking at these pictures say there's no doubt about it. this was a coordinated terrorist

attack. but who and why is very much unclear right now. and the problem with trying to then put planes in the air to try to prevent any further attacks is -- these, are after all, open airspaces for the most part. and it's difficult for the u.s. military to simply scramble jets and put them in the air and then, according to officials here, then do what? this area, of course, according to officials here, is obviously going to be declared off limits in terms of any air traffic. but right now officials here at the pentagon are simply scrambling to find out, first, what happened. >> right. >> and what potential reaction the u.s. military could provide in terms of protection, possible further protection against any further potential attacks. >> and, mik, it's important to note if they were hijacked,

carrying passengers, there isn't much military officials could have done, you can't shoot down a plane like that for risk of the people on board, plus or the injuries you could cause on the ground in a place like manhattan. >> that's exactly right. and the president, as we said earlier, does, in fact, have the authority to scramble the military to put them up in some kind of force protection mode. the governor has the air national guard at his disposal. he can do that. but again, officials are pretty much wondering exactly what to do in terms of protection and how. again, so the counter terrorist, this is absolutely the worst case scenario because they're right now seems to be not much, not much they can do in terms of the aftermath. >> mik, obviously, we're scrambling for information here. i want to read this reuters wire that says two planes crash into the towers of the world trade center on tuesday morning, causing huge explosions and

killing at least six people. cnbc tv said there were at least 1,000 injured. both towers of the lower mntd landmark where thousands of people work were the scenes of a bombing in 1993. the fbi told the associated press that it was, quote, foul play and not an accident. a person who answered the phone that was reported by abc, a person who answered the phone on the trading floor at inner dealer broker located near the top of the world trade center said, we're blanking dying, when asked what was happening and hung up. there was screaming and yelling in the background and a follow-up call was not answered. nick foaleton, an eye witness, said he saw a plane fly over his apartment in the soho district in lower manhattan. jamie is on the telephone, our national correspondent with more information. jamie, what can you tell us? >> katie, i've just spoken to top u.s. officials with the access to the latest intelligence and they said,

quote, that this was clearly terrorist related. no question about it. they said that they couldn't give any further details now, not because they didn't want to share it but because they just don't know yet. they're at the earliest stages. >> so do they know, jamie, for example, if a plane was, in fact, hijacked? >> they would not answer that. and i think that it's because -- i think that, they just are getting the earliest details and they're afraid of putting out misinformation. but they said, you know, that it was clearly terrorist related. >> all right. thanks. we're looking again, if you're just joining us, it's both towers of the world trade center in new york city where two planes have crashed into the towers. one certainly before 9:00 eastern time, one shortly after 9:00 eastern time. and as you can see, the tower on the left was hit just above the mid section point. they're both 110 floors high, 1300 feet above the ground.

the tower on the right was hit more probably two-thirds to 3/4 of the way up the tower but you can see fire, fires burning in both towers. we actually saw a videotape on -- we watched the second tape or the second plane hit the building. you will watch it enter from a portion of the screen and then make contact with the left-hand tower in what is shocking video. here it comes right there. you can see the impact on one side of the building and the residual damage coming out of another side of the building. and one can only imagine that that one occurred shortly after 9:00 in the morning, how many people were in the building at the time of the impact. and it's a large plane. we're told it was either a 737. some reports that the first plane was a 757. >> some kind of airbus. that was what united worker told us, that apparently that had been -- that it was an american airlines plane that had been -- >> hijacked.

>> -- hijacked from boston to los angeles. but we're just getting initial reports of that. again, we must tell you that we're trying to get as much information, but it is trickling in at a very slow pace. so all of this is unconfirmed and, of course, speculation of a terrorist attack is unconfirmed. although that is what some pentagon officials are saying. let's go to president bush right now. >> unfortunately we will be back to washington after my remarks. secretary and lieutenant governor will take the podium and discuss education. i do want to thank the folks here at the booker elementary school for their hospitality. today we've had a national tragedy. two airplanes have crashed into the world trade center in an apparent terrorist attack on our country. i have spoken to the vice president, to the governor of new york, to the director of the

fbi, and have ordered that the full resources of the federal government go to help the victims and their families and to conduct a full-scale investigation to hunt down and to find those folks who committed this act. terrorism against our nation will not stand. and now if you join me in a moment of silence. may god bless the victims, their families, and america. thank you very much. >> that, of course, was president bush who is in florida, in long boat key. he was speaking at an elementary school. he had planned to be talking about literacy. obviously he had to change. he mentioned that this is an apparent terrorist attack. he is traveling back to washington. he said he had spoken to the governor of new york as well as

the vice president. all the resources will be brought to bear by the federal government to determine who did this and who was responsible for this terrible, terrible event. and then, of course, it was followed by a moment of silence for the victims. >> we're going to go to andrea mitchell now who has more information on the tragedy. andrea? >> matt and katie, i've spoken to a top u.s. official who says that early reports to our intelligence community and to other officials within the administration are that this was a hijacked american airlines plane on route from boston to los angeles. one of the two planes, they say, was apparently a hijacked american airlines plane. they caution that early reports still need further confirmation but this is at least what the u.s. government is being told by american airlines officials, apparently. they are assuming and obviously informed the president that this is a terror attack. >> andrea, we have no

information as to what term of flight this plane was taken over, how much warn that air traffic controllers may have had that someone hostile was at the controls of this plane? >> exactly right. they have no other information. just that at least one of the two planes was hijacked from boston on route to los angeles, presumably after it had already been in the air and on route because i was told en route to los angeles. so probably hijacked after it had taken off. as you know, those are very short flights. those are usually 737s or 757s on that route. but this clearly, according to the u.s. government, is a terror attack. as you heard the president say. now, one of the things, matt and katie, we should understand is that there was no specific threat that u.s. government is aware of. no specific terror alert other than the worldwide caution that had been reissued in recent days because of the strike in middle east, because of concerns over terrorists. of course, the best known is

osama bin laden. but no alert coming from his organization. and as far as they know, as of this morning, as of this minute, he is in afghanistan. >> we should mention, andrea, it appears this was a well coordinated bombing or terrorist act because of the fact that two planes were used, both substantial in size and the fact that they both hit the world trade center within 18 minutes of one another. obviously a lot of planning went into this attack. let's go to nbc's jim miklaszewski. >> they are saying they are getting information that the american airlines flight 11, after it left boston apparently, was hijacked and was diverted apparently, the early information was, was being diverted to jfk for some reason. and then obviously nobody knows

exactly who was at the controls of the plane, but it broke off its route from -- to los angeles and was headed toward jfk. that was the initial information officials had received when obviously it did not go to jfk but veered off and headed toward the world trade center. but again, no indication as to who may be responsible or who was at the controls of that plane when it rammed into the world trade center. matt? >> thank you. we're going to be obviously talking with you throughout the morning but right now we want to talk to larry johnson, a terrorism expert, in fact, the former deputy director of the state department's office on counter terrorism. mr. johnson, can you please put this into some kind of perspective for us and give us your insight on what might have happened here? >> well, you know, first, we need to be cautious before jumping to conclusion that it's necessarily terrorism. i would be inclined based upon

the preliminary reports we've seen to say that is the case. but there's always the possibility that you may find out after the fact that this was some suicide pact for some reason that had nothing to do with politics. that said, this is a first. back in 1992 there was a -- excuse me, '93, a plane hijacked from germany and it ended uplandiupland i lantding in new york. one of the concerns at that time was the possibility of that plane under the control of a hijacker flying it into one of the buildings. so, you know, my concern now is that there's always, you know, we ignore terrorism. we talk a lot about it but we ignore taking very practical steps on security fronts until something take happens and then the pendulum swings out to an extreme. the next thing you hear people talking about putting surface air missiles on top of buildings to prevent this kind of thing.

this is a very rare event. it's unlikely to be repeated. but, i think president bush put his finger on it, we have to find who did this. and any country, any nationed in world that is in anyway involved or responsible, if it turns out to be terrorism, will require a response from the united states. and united states has got to be willing to pay that price. >> mr. johnson, obviously we're completely stunned when about 25 minutes after the first explosion or after the first plane crashed into one of the twin towers, another very large plane did the same thing. and we've been talking with our correspondents all morning about sort of the another incident could happen on the heels of these two, what kind of measures are in place to prepare for something else that could conceivably happen? >> well, i think one of the those steps already being taken, i was at national airport getting ready to fly to laguardia when this occurred. they have shut down air traffic going in and out of the cities. now, apart from shutting down

the air traffic, you're talking about an enormous disruption economically for the nation right now with the air traffic not going in. people are going toer on the side of caution. across the board you're going to look at major hubs in the united states, where there are large buildings. chicago, atlanta, los angeles, and they're going to be extra measures taken. you know, one possibility is you could start putting up air cover and require that planes stay within a particular area and do not approach any closer and if they approach, you would put -- go t to the extremes of having u.s. air force intercept. >> larry, i wanted to ask all morning, the correspondents have also been saying, particularly bob and jim miklaszewski, and andrea mitchell, no warning attached to this event. general speaking, do u.s. officials, government agencies, get some kind of warning from a particular group or is this

pretty -- i mean, fairly typical in terms of an event happening without any foreshadowing? >> no, katie, this unfortunately is typical. it's only in the movies that you get the advanced warnings. you know, you look at every major terrorist incident against the united states, whether you're talking pan am 103, the world trade center, the "uss cole" bombing, the bombing the saudi arabia. rarely do you get an advanced notice. >> jim miklaszewski has more information. >> i don't want to alarm anybody light now but apparently it felt a few moments ago like there was an explosion of some kind here at the pentagon. we're on the e-ring of the pentagon. we have a window that faces out toward the potomac, toward the kennedy center. we haven't been able to see or hear anything after the initial blast. i just stepped out in the hallway. security guards were herding people out of the building. and i saw just a moment ago as i

looked out side a number of construction workers who had been working here have taken flight. they are running as far away from the building as they can right now. i hear no sirens going off in the building. i see no smoke. but the building shook for just a couple of seconds. the windows rattled. and a security personnel are doing what they can momentarily to clear this part of the building. again, i have no idea whether it was part of the construction work, whether it was an accident, or what is going on. we're going try to find those details and get them to you as soon as possible. but interestingly enough, one intelligence official here in the building said when he saw what appeared to be the coordinated attack on the world trade center, his advice was to stay away from the outside of the building today just in case. now, again, nobody has any indications of exactly what happened, but it appears that

there has been some kind of -- it felt like a small blast of some kind. again, the windows shook. the building shook, the windows rattled, and people, if i'm looking out the window now, and the construction workers are still keeping a good -- i'm sorry. the construction workers are still keeping a distance. that's all i can see. and i see no other extracurricular security activity right outside. but to get more information, i'm going to have to break away and walk down the hallway and see what it is exactly that happened here just a few moments ago. >> mik, see what you can find out. please be careful and let us know what's going on there. meanwhile, we're going to go back to david gregory who is in long boat key, florida, where president bush was earlier this morning for an event on literacy. he was going to a school to talk with kids. david wlarks c david, what can you tell us? >> a little bit more about how all of this unfolded and what

the president is going to do next. the president declared this an apparent terrorist act. he offered a prayer for the families, promised to hunt down in his words the people responsible for this. he will now travel back to washington and aides are telling us now that he will immediately convene a national security meeting to see what steps are taken next. >> david, i'm sorry to interrupt you but we're looking at live pictures of the pentagon where there is billowing smoke. jim miklaszewski just reported they heard an explosion. right now we're looking at an aerial view of the pentagon. mik, can you talk to us? >> officially nobody knows exactly what happened. i think the picture is pretty clear. according to one u.s. army officer who went running past me at a full trot, he said that it appears that a bomb was detonated at the heliport. the heliport is a helicopter landing area right next to the

pentagon justed a j ed a jadjac ring. the offices nearest to the heliport area are u.s. army, reserve officers and the army reserve offices are located there. but as you can see, it appears to be a pretty significant blast. to give you some perspective, we are almost on the opposite side of the building, the world's largest office building, and as i reported to you, we could feel the building shake and the windows rattle. and as i was in the hallway just a few moments ago, i could smell an acrid kind of smoke, the kind almost that you would smell when a fluorescent light goes bad that kind of ballast smell. authorities are clearing the building. i don't know if you can hear the sirens right now but it appears

that what i think people here in the building are already describing a highly sophisticated coordinated attack not only against the world trade center but against the pentagon and u.s. military right here in washington. >> tell me again, i work at the pentagon as well and it is a huge building. i mean, it's miles and miles of offices. at what location did this seem to have detonated? >> it's at the heliport, the heliport which is, as you sit in the pentagon, you have the potomac river and washington, d.c. on one side and the heliport is located almost exactly on the opposite side of the building, along one of the highways. easily accessible, even though they've increased security here significantly at the pentagon within the past couple of years, that area -- >> i want to mention to you, mik, we are hearing again, unconfirmed reports that this

was the result of a plane crashing in the area, as well. >> i have no idea, katie. all i know is that people who were in the building who came running from that part of the building thought it was a bomb of some kind. according to chris brown, my colleague, who just came in, it appears that whatever it was, and perhaps it was a plane, katie, if those are the initial reports, crashed into or the damage is on the roof of the building at the heliport side of the pentagon, which is just opposite of the potomac river, as i just said. >> we're looking at the white house, mik, because we are learning that there have been some evacuations from the white house. i'm assuming that everyone is being evacuated from the pentagon? >> well, nobody is giving us the official word yet. but i think that's probably a safe bet.

thank goodness that was a helicopter that just flew by. i'm just a little nervous right now when you hear aircraft go past. but they have, in fact, evacuated that portion of the building. usually they have sirens that go off in the building, alerting you to the fact that it's time to get out. i haven't heard those yet. but just judging by the pictures, it's clear that that part of the building that is not damaged at least has been evacuated. like i said, in the hallway, it was pandemonium. people were rushing from their offices, rushing outside. >> you're in your office at the pentagon right now, mik, reporting to us? >> i am in the office but i'm at the opposite side of where this crash occurred. >> all right. why don't you see if you can gather some more information. please, again, be careful, mik. we're going to go to matt who is going to be talking to jamie. >> yeah, katie, thank you very much. i'm joined by tom brokaw. we'll try to recap what's been going on all morning on the east

coast in a few moments but we want to go to "today"'s national correspondent with more information. jamie? >> matt, i just want to tell you that u.s. intelligence sources are confirming the reports that one of the planes was a hijacked flight, an american flight, from boston to los angeles. they are also now looking into what's going on at the pentagon. they don't have any details, but they have now put government buildings around the city of washington on a heightened state of alert. i think part of that is happening formally but obviously people are seeing what's going on and some people are leaving buildings, as well, simply because of the concern following these latest reports from the pentagon. >> all right. jamie, thank you very much. again, joined by tom brokaw and katie is back with us now, too. let's try to recap. it's 9:47 eastern time. try and recap what's gone on so far this morning. and the news is terrible.

just before 9:00 -- >> at 8:42. >> 8:42, a plane crashed into the right-hand tower of the world trade center. somewhat about 3/4 of the way up, you can see the smoke billowing from that part of the building. then about 18 or 20 minutes later a second plane, a large plane, we saw it actually on tape, hit the left-hand tower of the world trade center. about halfway up. an enormous fireball on several sides of the building, people trying to be evacuated. there's the tape of the second plane hitting right there. even as people were trying to get out of the first building, we have confirmed reports now that there was one plane hijacked, american airlines flight 11 from boston to los angeles. and that is apparently one of the planes used in this crash. >> matt, there's a report on dubai television that, in fact, the group claiming responsibility is the democratic front for the liberation of pal stein. this comes ironically on a day when the israeli foreign

minister perez is scheduled to meet with yasser tear farafat. the palestinians were accusing the israelis of racism. there hasn't been one specific incident. >> the israelis vacated that meeting, as well. >> but there has not been one specific incident. it's also worth pointing out the terrorism always has two prongs to it. the physical threat and now the psychological threat. this does seem to be surreal but, in fact, it is real when you have an explosion of undetermined origin at the pentagon, the most conspicuous symbol of american capitalism, the twin trade towers in new york, two deliberate attacks on those towers today. we do not know for sure who is responsible. >> and the capitol, by the way, the u.s. capitol has been evacuated. there have been evacuations taking place at the white house. needless to say, many people at the pentagon have left that building, as well. >> and here in new york -- >> the this building in midtown,

new york, they have asked a lot of people at 30 rockefeller plaza to leave. it's another high rooiz canise building in new york. i came down the length of manhattan and a lot of people were simply unaware of what happened. you do you know in in the radio they began to get it. it is election day here in new york. >> primary day. >> what we have is something most americans thought could never occur. >> and larry johnson that i spoke with a few moments ago, the former deputy director of the state department office of counter terrorism claimed this is a first, that he had never heard or seen anything like it. he talked about back in 1993 a german plane being hijacked and there were fears when it was flown to new york it may be crashed into something. >> this is a major development. the federal aviation administration shut down all air traffic nationwide. this country has been i am mobilized by these terrorist attacks in terms of air travel today and we don't know where it

goes from here. we ask that you stay with us as we get hard information we can share that with you. there will be a lot of speculation. the president described this apparently as a terrorist attack. the fbi has confirmed that an american airlines flight boston to los angeles was hijacked, the first plane that went into the twin trade towers. >> let's go to james, the former director of the fbi here in new york. i am sure you have never seen anything like this. do you have any information that might be helpful to us? >> well, not particular information on this tragedy. certainly what an incredible tragedy, and all of us in law enforcement and prior in law enforcement have talked for years and the public has seen the hatred in the world and seen the bombing of the world trade center and the conspiracy to blow up the tunnels in the united nations and the fbi building back in the '90s and the bomb at the uss cole and the bombings of our embassies in

africa so we have known for some time now this hatred exists, and now it looks like that it culminated in this absolutely horrendous incredible act against the united states. >> i am sorry, as someone who investigated some of these crimes in the past and we think back to 1993 and the world trade center bombing and what it took in terms of coordination and planning to pull off that one bomb in the world trade center, can you even speculate as to what it might take to coordinate this what we think so far is a three-pronged attack this morning? >> matt, it obviously took a lot of coordination. there is a lot of groups in the world that have the ability to coordinate these types of attacks. as you know and most people should know, the united states is an open society. we have talked for years about the downside of having our borders basically open and on any given day people fly into our airports undocumented and

turn into the population. they're certainly not all terrorists, but we live in a free society, and i am not espousing we change that. it is very, very difficult for the fbi and law enforcement to keep track of this when we live in this the society that we live in. >> if you can stand by for just a moment. we have more information. >> katie, my colleague chris brown at the pentagon encountered some of those who survived, whatever it was, whether it was a bomb or an airplane crashing into the pentagon. one of the survivors reportedly injured and various lacerations was on the second floor of the d ring, that is one ring inside the outer ring of the pentagon when suddenly there was this horrific blast, and he said that the second floor buckled upward and then the third floor above him actually collapsed downward. the scene on the other side of

the building as it is being described to us, there are people being removed on stretchers, security forces are evacuating the building right now, and according to the officials here at the pentagon, they still don't know exactly what it was. as you reported, katie, eyewitnesss reported that in fact it was a plane that crashed into the pentagon. >> mick, any idea? i wasn't sure if you said this about the number of people who might have been hurt or worse in this? >> no idea at all, katie. as you know, having worked here on any given day, this is a small city, 25 to 30,000 people may be working here at any one time. that portion of the pentagon by the way had just been remodeled and just reopened. if the crash had occurred just a few months ago that section of the pentagon would have been virtually empty. at this time of day, early morning, or midmorning the

pentagon is very busy. it is impossible to say how many casualties there may be. there have been a large number of people sighted being removed on stretchers, and again as one survivor said, the floor just buckled up under him and the roof caved in on him. >> mick, thank you very much. we want to move a couple of miles away from you right now to the white house where bob kerr is standing by. we understand that building has been evacuated. >> that is true. as soon as word came of the pentagon incident, we were rather forcefully removed from the white house. the scene was one of administrators, cooks, running at fairly high speed all the way out of the building through the top gates and then we huddled for a while in lafayette parka cross the street, and we have been moved now from there a block or so away.

the offices along jackson place which are across the street from the white house and adjacent to lafayette park also have been evacuated and in the most surreal of this morning's scenes here at the white house, a white plane, a very big yet, was flying in an unusual pattern near the white house over lafayette park, very slowly. it made one circle and then we have not seen it since. there was a lot of concern about what that plane might be, but again it is only speculation, but most people say that since flights have been cleared from u.s. air space and it was a totally white plane, looked unusual to all of us, that it was a government plane of some kind. >> we should point out we're looking at pictures, bob, as you speak of the world trade center because all of the camera crews have been evacuated from the white house as well. when do you expect president bush to arrive there, bob?

>> katie, he is coming back directly, and you figure it is about a two-hour flight, so you can do the math. the reason i said that it was so surreal, within just about 20 minutes ago they were still conducting tours. you had hordes of tourists and others still in the white house on tour, lining up outside to get in. there seemed to be absolutely no unusual activity outside the white house until word came of the incident at the pentagon. it has been quite a dramatic shift here. >> in terms of responsibility, tom, and matt and bob, apparently a senior official from the radical democratic front for the liberation of palestine denied on tuesday the group had any connection to the plane crash and an anonymous caller had told television that it was behind the crash but, quote, i emphasize the story released on television by an anonymous person is totally i

know incorrect. the dflp is against hi-jacking plane and againsten dangering the lives of civilians not connected with the struggle of this region, he said. >> there are going to be a lot claims and counter claims in the next 24 hours or so. this is a task of investigators of extraordinary magnitude to find out who did this and got away from it. you think about a flight on the way from boston to los angeles and hijacked in mid-air and they're citing transmission from the plane so they have part evidence of that and brought down here and made to fly into the twin trade towers. did one of the hijackers get control? did they shoot the pilot? it boggles the mind beyond our ability to figure out what was going on. >> talking about transmissions, i was curious, have you had any evidence of what was said during -- >> they're just saying citing transmission to know that the plane had been hijacked. that's all they're saying at

this point. we ought to remind everyone once again this is an exceptional development. the faa has banned all take offs at all airports across america. this country in terms of air travel has been immobilized. the most powerful center of the world has been immobilized as well. >> that's a haunting description bob kerr just gave of the low-flying aircraft near the white house and one can only wonder if that was ultimately -- >> we just saw a live picture of what seemed to be a portion of the building falling away from the world trade center. if we can rerack that to about 20 seconds ago you will see something dramatic happening and i don't know whether it is another explosion or a portion of the building falling away, but something major just happened at that building. >> we have the tape. >> watch what happens in the left-hand tower.

i don't know if this is the correct tape. there. something there is about to happen. falling away right there. >> it looks like a big junk peeled away. >> one can only hope the area is evacuated. you wonder about the emergency vehicles and the people who might have been injured early in the morning. >> you remember when the bomb went off and the basement in 1993 how much damage was done throughout that building, how much chaos there was at that time. these are two coordinated airplane attacks on the building on the upper reaches of it it that will have enormous structural effect. those buildings i think fair to say will probably have to be brought town. it is too early to speculate on that. there is that kind of damage. >> talk again and you were talking about -- >> we have somebody on the scene. >> a reporter from wnbc. you talk about the plane taken from boston on the way to los angeles and the reports are that it was being diverted to jfk and for people not familiar with the

geography of this area, the sorj tip of manhattan would be very much near the flight, the landing pattern for jfk airport. it could have been easy for a hijacker to pretend that he was taking that plane to jfk and veer off at the last minute. >> i heard an eyewitness say over washington square he saw a plane go over at 1,000 feet and apparently the american airlines flight and then do what he described as a sharp right turn toward the world trade center. he then lost sight of it. >> one eyewitness here says he was getting off a path train to the world trade center and saw bodies falling out of the building as he approached it. police told him to get out immediately. he ran outside and watched people jump out of the first building and then there was the second explosion. >> this footage we're seeing right now shows the damage is so severe. we had seen what seemed to be two fairly self contained impact craters before and now it

appears something much more dramatic happened to at least one of those towers. >> these pictures are beyond belief. >> we have a report the second plane may have flown out of newark, new jersey, an official speaking on the condition of anonymity. we know there were two plane that is went in, the first apparently was an american airlines flight from boston to los angeles. we're now seeing it from the harbor view of this continuing damage and destruction to the world trade center. >> incidentally, tom, apparently jamie has more information for us. jamie? >> reporter: talking to u.s. officials with access to the highest intelligence, and they are now confirming that it does appear that at the pentagon it was a plane. they are saying they believe a third plane was involved at the pentagon. >> of course this has been the nightmare, katie, for national security officials for a long time. we talk about nuclear bombs and

those exchanges or invasions. everyone has been terribly worried about the suitcase-sized bomb of some kind or airplane or attack on our subways and the large cities and this obviously no one had anticipated, three airplanes that were deliberately aimed at critical targets in america. we can only hope that it is over for today. officials are taking no chances on all of that. they're evacuating all critical buildings because as mr. johnson said earlier this is an open society. james wallstrom from the fbi pointing almost anyone can come in. they have access to so many instruments that can be used as instruments of attack and terrorism and certainly has been the case today. >> let's go to our state department correspondent andrea mitchell. what can you tell us? >> this from the fbi. the state department has been evacuated. there was a meeting going on in the operations center. other top officials in the situation room.

colin powell is in bogota, columbia, and this very interesting information, katie, from the fbi, they have been operating a massive exercise from their hostage rescue unit, all of their top teams, about 50 personnel, helicopters, equipment in monterey, california, the last two days scheduled to fly back today commercially. all of those people are out of place. it is fair to say according to sources we talked to at nbc the fbi rescue operations and other fbi operations are really in chaos right now because they can't reach their officials in new york. all of their phone lines are down. now you have the special experts on this stuck in monterey, california, trying to get a military flight back because there are no longer commercial flights. they're seriously out of pocket and there is a real breakdown of the fbi antiterrorist coordination team which is of course the principle team that would lead any effort and so effective under jim call strom

in new york city through the world trade center bombing and the twa explosion that turned out not to be terror. >> is the state department taking this claim of responsibility from the democratic front for the liberation of palestine seriously? are they giving any credence to that? are they dismissing it? how do they feel about who might have been responsible for this. >> i think it is far too early for them. even the best experts in the government, to figure this out. they have one instant reaction as you know and it can be wrong but the immediate reaction in a case like this would be to look toward osama bin laden and the collateral groups connected to him simply because he proved with the embassy bombings in africa that he is the one terror leader who is capable of this kind of highly coordinated attack. the bombings went off in tanzania and kenya almost simultaneously. it was extraordinarily well coordinated. they proved their case to a jury

effectively and managed to develop a great deal of information from sources and his network. they believe that he is the most likely person but far too early to say anything. >> we want to tell you that american airlines has confirmed one of its flights, american airlines flight 11 from boston's logan airport scheduled to go to lax left at 8 a.m. this morning, 45 minutes later it was diverted into the world trade center. it was the airline that was involved. we can only assume on a popular flight like that it probably had a capacity load of passengers and crew on board. there was a hi-jacking. that was the first plane involved. we don't know about the second plane yet nor do we know the origins of a third plane that deliberately flew itself into the pentagon this morning near the port. >> we saw dramatic pictures from the pentagon just moments ago,

matt. >> let's go back to a few seconds ago. this is now about an hour after the first impact. we saw some dramatic footage of a portion of one of twin towers actually appearing to fall away from the rest of the building. can we go to the tape? here we go. when you look at it, the building has collapsed. that tower just came down. >> let's go to bob at the st. vincent's hospital. what's going on there? what can you tell us? >> katie, st. vincent's is one of the hospitals closest to the world trade center in the last few minutes ambulances coming in one right after another. most of the people they're bringing in have second and third degree burning, very serious burn victims and they say the smoke inhalation people will probably not most serious but they're not even close to getting to them yet. there is a triage operation going on in the yir. ambulances are being dispatched to every hospital in new york city. the entire staff has come in from where they are and true in hospitals across new york city and standing there as soon as an

ambulance pulls in and dozens of workers rush up to it. it is a carnage just beginning. everybody here, the emergency service workers i spoke to have been down into the world trade center sites and say this is the tip of the iceberg. there will be massive amounts of casualties. >> what are they telling you about people? were there many people inside the building or is it just too early to tell? >> it is too early to tell. there were certainly probably hundreds, even thousands of people in the building even though it was before 9:00 and the start of the usual work period because it is just such a large area, so the number of casualties is just enormous. they're beginning to sort it out and get to the first few they can get to. the ambulances are coming in and lined up. every ambulance in new york city is summoned. they go in as soon as they can get a victim and bring them upright away. >> we're looking at the lower end of manhattan as a result of the collapse of one world trade center, that whole financial

district now engulfed in smoke and debris and probably is going to be a lot more smoke inhalation problems. >> almost certainly, tom. i was standing and saw that collapse and everybody just gasped and even the medical workers and the ambulance attendants when they saw that, people used to tragedy, they grabbed each other and hugged each other and some started to cry. >> and one wonders about the triage. >> exactly. close to the base of the building trying to evacuate people. when a building like that falls it does not fall in its own footprint. >> absolutely. i am several blocks north of there. i don't know what that area looks like. one can only imagine. >> the consequences go on. not just to the world trade center and to the people trapped and caught there but of course that is the heart of the world financial markets which have now been shut down effectively as well, so the ripple effect continues this morning as we all try to adjust psychologically and intellectually to what we're

witnessing here. it is difficult to comprehend. this country, the strongest country in the world, has been the target of a major coordinated terrorist attack, and the end is not over yet. even if it is confined to just these three targets, the ripple effect goes on. all air traffic is shut down. there will be no financial markets in place today. business has been stopped across the country. >> of course who knows the human toll that will not result of this action. matt actually just pointed out to me on any given day 50,000 people, tom, work at the world trade center. >> and at 8:45 in the morning if they're not in the building they're around the building. that's a bee hive of activity. there is no more active area in terms of pedestrian traffic. >> i hate to keep going back to the collapse of the tower. if you consider this plane hit at midstructure and would have probably taken out the electrical in the building where elevators would work and people struggling to get some way out

of that tower, and it takes a long time to come down over 100 stories. to think about the possible loss of life that just occurred by the collapse of that southeastern tower is just amazing. mina with "the today show" apparently saw the collapse of one of those towers >> hi, matt. >> tell me what you saw. >> on the corner of duane and best broadway walking towards the twin towers and it just collapsed. it looked like sort of like the building just demolished, smoke, clouds, everywhere. people running towards me. i was going towards the twin towers. people were going away from the towers and it was just people running like i have never seen a scene like it. >> from where you were did you see many of the injured being treated? is there any indication as the type of perimeter that the ems people -- >> no, matt, i haven't gotten that close yet. they were sort of blocking off

the street. now what they're doing is clearing out the area. more and more emergency officials are coming in to help. >> can you give me an idea of the reaction of people down there? pedestrians? >> everyone, everyone in tears. people who were -- i met a woman in the building to the right of where the first thing happened, and just all crying, wondering if the people they know in the buildings next door are okay. >> thank you very much. take care of yourself. jamie gangel, national correspondent is on the phone with more information. >> as you well know, buildings around town are being evacuated. the state department is evacuated. the white house has been evacuated, and the pentagon has been evacuated. intelligence officials tell me they do believe at the pentagon that that was a third plane going down.

they have had the intelligence sources that i have talked to say that they have not received any claim of responsibility yet. >> have you gotten any information from reagan national airport as to air traffic in the area this morning or anybody who might have somehow traced this plane or figured out from where it came or where it was going? >> they still do not have any of those details yet. it is almost impossible. they were confused for a long time as to whether it is a bomb or plane. they say it appears to be a plane, but they say that that is all the information that they have. as you know, the faa shut down all aircraft now and they are now going back and trying to sort that out. they do not have any information on that yet. >> do they know what type of plane it might have been? >> unfortunately they just don't have that yet. >> all right, jamie, thank you very much.

we'll be talking with you. >> it goes without saying this is the most serious attack on the united states in more than 100 years, not since the war of 1812 and certainly the damage that we did to ourselves during the civil war has this country suffered this kind of damage within its interior, obviously pearl harbor which triggered world war ii was a horrific event as well. there has never been an event to match the magnitude of this one in which everything has been shut down in terms of air traffic and the national capital has been immobilized and the white house, state department, pentagon attacked and the financial markets shut down. there is an untold loss of life here in manhattan, the nerve center of america. saying nothing of what's going on at the pentagon. >> when was the last time -- this is a shot of new york city and downtown manhattan that many people have never -- can't remember. one tower. >> it looks like a movie frankly that is unfolding and combines the horror of the twa flight 800 bombing and the murrah federal

building. >> now i guess everyone is up. it is 7:15 in the west. for those of you just joining us at 8:45 eastern time today, an american airlines flight 11 from boston to lax was crashed into one of the world trade center buildings. 15 minutes later another plane hit the other one. that building has now collapsed. within an hour of those two attacks the pentagon was hit now we're told by a plane, untold number of casualties there. president bush has been on the air. he was in florida at the time saying apparently this was a terrorist attack and everyone now believes that, carefully coordinated from the air and the consequences of it in terms of human loss and the effect on this country are still be to determined. >> we want to go to kathleen and treating some of the injured. can you hear me? >> yes, i can.

>> can you tell me about the injuries you're seeing and the numbers of people you have been treating? >> we have seen a steady stream of patients for an hour and a half, and appeared to be superficial injuries, but i can't tell you that i have seen the most serious ones because i believe they're going in through the ambulance bay, so we have a very high level of activity here, our first priority is on the care of those patients. we do not have an exact tally at this time because of the level of activity at the hospital. we have also been responding to family members and friends who have come seeking information to the hospital. >> just quickly, kathleen, how far is the hospital from the world trade center? >> the hospital is perhaps a five-minute walk from the world trade center and we were the first responders when the trade center was attacked in '93, so unfortunately we have some prior

experien experience. >> what kind of medical support is there downtown? >> we are the only hospital south of 13th street so we serve a large portion of the city. for that reason our emergency room is a very high priority of this hospital, and the staff has been doing a heroic job in terms of responding to the patients. >> what about the triage unit that is on the ground there? are they nyu team of nyu medical people on the scene as well? >> yes, there are. i cannot respond to that question because i am not on the scene. i don't have that information. >> you do have medical people, your personnel there at the scene? >> that is my understanding, yes. >> katie, what we're worried about is the other building may come down. they have obviously evacuated that whole area as a result of the crash at one world trade center and i am told there is concern about the second collapses as well.

plainly an enormous amount of structural damage in the upper floors and it is more than 100 stories high. wouldn't take much to bring it down. >> kathleen, thank you very much. we appreciate it. >> we're told now that a spokspn for yasser arafat, the leader of the palestinian liberation association, that arafat condemned what happened in new york and says the plo has no role whatsoever and appalled by what's happening. there was an earlier report that the radical democratic front for the liberation of palestine claimed responsibility and that was later denied as well. we don't know who is responsible for this. it was carefully planned and coordinated and fair to say it has been devastatingly efficient and effective attack on the heart of this country.

>> pat dawson is on the ground near the world trade center. pat, are you there? can you hear me? he is having audio problems. we'll get to pat in just a moment. >> just amazing. you have to stop and think about the hijacked plane and the terror of the passengers on board as it could have been up to an ahour they realized something was dramatically wrong with this flight and then thinking that perhaps they were going to john f. kennedy airport here in queens actually and the plane suddenly veering into the world trade center tower. >> you can only imagine. >> what is striking is we didn't have an early report of the hi-jacking. a lot of people monitor that air traffic talk that goes on and it wasn't until this happened. >> the plane left boston at 8:00 this morning. >> 45 minutes later it went in. >> yeah, 42 minutes later this occurred. >> it flew right over lower

manhattan. a number of people saw it at a very low altitude and take the sharp right turn and wondered according to eyewitnesss what with in the world was going on. moments later of course the world trade center was hit. it was about an hour after that that jim mick said there is a p in the pentagon and people hurt and we hope no one is killed but seems likely there were probably casualties of a serious magnitude there as well. the white house is evacuated. the state department is evacuated. here is the pentagon now. >> pat dawson apparently let's take a quick shot and look at the pentagon and as you can see smoke continues to billow out of that structure. as tom mentioned it is unclear how many people were hurt and if in fact it was a plane. there is speculation they believe it was a plane. let's go to pat dawson by the world trade center. can you hear me? >> we cannot tell you much more in terms of specific information

other than to say that there are probably at this stage i would say hundreds, perhaps in the thousands of emergency workers who in the last hour and a half have managed to work their way down here to lower manhattan and basically try to get into this fray. they are -- we are standing right here about 10 to 12 blocks north of the world trade center. these firemen that you can see, fire fighters, fire fighters are walking down towards the site now and they literally have been arriving by the dozens over the past hour or so, as we say probably in excess of 1,000 or more emergency workers from new york city and surrounding areas converging on this site now to try to make some sense of it. as you can imagine, at this point there is a certain level of chaos because they're just trying to sort out who is alive, who is not. we did speak to as i said before some of the emergency workers. they are police officers from

the port authority of new york and new jersey. that's the organization that has jurisdiction over the two buildings specifically as well as bridges and tunnels. i spoke to two of them down there when the building collapsed and they said they speculate the loss of life had to be horrific, that there were on the streets at that point but most of them who have been evacuated, that is civilians, but on the other hand they said there were literally hundreds of emergency workers down at that end. they have no idea the level of loss of life at this point and when i asked one of them why he was going back in as he suited up and he could barely breathe and he said it is my job and there may be some of my brother officers in there. there may be other people in there. those officers going in here and as you can see all kinds of fire workers going in there and literally in the thousands now converging on this site. we cannot give you much of an organizational sense beyond telling you probably what you already know which is that two

separate aircraft have struck the two towers of the world trade center. if memory serves, i think each of those towers stands 110 stories, some of the dust as you can probably see now is blowing in our faces. it depends on which way the wind blows whether or not we're enveloped in the dust and smoke. assist you can see from the pictures, the amount of dust from the fire burning, flames and ash is extraordinary at this point and at least a few emergency workers have said that they really aren't so sure that other tower won't stay up now. they really didn't think the first one was capable of coming down and it did and they're basically saying keep back as far as you can. on the other hand, facing that danger as we have been telling you, many, many hundreds of these workers are heading over those lines towards that burning building to try to rescue those people who are in there, be they emergency workers, be they civilians, and the original

crash took place just about quarter to nine by my reckoning. i don't know the exact time, about quarter to nine, and when that took place, obviously at that hour the building would not be packed with people but it is still late enough in the morning that there would be enough people. >> we are listening to pat dawson standing near the world trade center in lower manhattan and i was thinking while pat was talking you spent time in oklahoma city after the explosion and it took more than a week to sift through that rubble of a building that was how many stories? >> probably it was about 30 stories as i remember. >> i am sorry to interrupt you both. apparently we have gotten a report that a car bomb has exploded outside the state department. again, that's an initial report that i am hearing from our producers in the control room. can we go to anyone for more information on that? apparently no more information. >> where is andrea mitchell? is she at the state department? >> the state department has been

evacuated as well as the white house, the u.s. capitol evacuated, and obviously the pentagon has as well. mick, what is the latest from the pentagon? >> katie, security officials here at the pentagon have not only evacuated the building but they're clearing the entire area. security forces have reported that they have received information of another plane hijacked, that is about 20 to 25 miles out of washington, d.c., heading in this general direction. the secretary of defense donald rumsfeld a few moments ago was refusing to leave the building. we ran into the chief naval officer, the top naval officer, admiral vern clark and they were loading him quickly into a car and taking him to an alternative command site. they were taking admiral clark to an alternative command site. hello. do you hear me? >> we do. go ahead.

>> i am sorry. there is no confirmation of this latest threat. security officials here are taking this very seriously. we were standing with secretary rumsfeld's security detail who as soon as they got the report went running into the building and we were herded away. they have set up an alternative command site somewhere in the area. the pentagon has set up a crisis team to deal with this situation. so far the latest reports are that another plane of some kind may have been hijacked and headed in this direction. >> we also should tell you, mick, this is tom brokaw, the faa says that now all international flights headed for the united states are being diverted to canada, this at a time when jim is telling us there is an unconfirmed report there is another hi-jacking. all take offs were stop and there were planes in the air obviously of the first two attacks in the twin trade towers and the pentagon. >> andrea mitchell is standing

by with more information. she was at the state department? the state department as you know has been evacuated. secretary of state colin powell is on route home from lema, peru. he did not get to his destination of bogota, columbia today. that trip canceled. he and other officials are heading back. state department officials and the white house officials and nfc are evacuated as well although connecticde rice is in situation room and as we reported earlier, key fbi team members from the rescue efforts and anti-terror coordinating team were stranded in monterey, california, where they were on a secret exercise, military exercise against exactly this kind of event. >> andrea, let me interrupt. can you tell us more about reports we're getting that a car bomb exploded outside the state department? >> i do not have confirmation of that. they did evacuate the state

department. we do not have confirmation. >> we're going to go back to jim at the pentagon. >> i have my eyes peeled here, katie. i don't see anything. security forces in the area have just blard out over the loud speakers to any pedestrians who are anywhere near the pentagon to take cover immediately. there was as i said earlier an indication that another plane may have been hijacked and headed in this general direction. so far all we see are helicopters circling the pentagon. the skies are crystal clear blue and i can't see the spec of an yarp but security forces alarmed enough not only to tell people to keep some distance from the building but to take immediate cover. >> can you tell me a little bit more -- well, let's look at the live pictures at the world trade center.

the other tower of the world trade center just collapsed. you're looking at live pictures of the second twin tower at the world trade center collapsing as a result of the crash of an airport into its side. that i believe is the first tower that was struck this morning at 8:42 eastern time. it is now fallen to the ground and collapsed. >> there is a declaration of war by terrorists on the united states. >> pat dawson, excuse me, tom, is down at the scene. pat? >> where is wayne? where is wayne? >> pat, can you hear us? obviously there is pandemonium downtown. pat is not far from the world trade center as you can hear from the sirens and you can only imagine the confusion and terror in the area after not one but both trade center towers that now collapsed. >> more than 100 stories of

steel, concrete, and there it is. >> we are back at 10:30 eastern time on this tuesday morning, this horrific, incredible, not to be believed tuesday morning. are you looking at live pictures of the world trade center where just a few minutes ago, within the last minute actually, the second twin tower collapsed. just to recap if you're just joining us around 8:42 eastern time in new york city a plane crashed into the right twin tower of the world trade center, about two-thirds of the way up the building leaving a huge gaping hole, a huge fire, and tons of billowing smoke, about 25 minutes later a second jet believed to be a 727.

>> 737, some reports of a 757. >> then crashed into the second twin tower. the first plane incidentally was on route from boston, massachusetts, to los angeles. >> here is the video of the second plane striking the tower. >> that's right. we're not sure the origin of that plane is my understanding. the first plane that causesed the right-hand side and the other twin tower was from boston to lax to los angeles, flight 11, american airlines. we confirmed that plane was hijacked. what happened following the hi-jacking, rather, is unclear. we should note that about an hour after the first collision at the pentagon reportedly another plane crashed into the pentagon which is just outside washington, d.c. in northern virginia. all air traffic has been stopped. >> government buildings have been evacuated as have other buildings across the country.

the sears tower was evacuated. you can imagine other buildings in major cities and small cities are probably being evacuated as well. >> there is an unconfirmed report of a car explosion at the state department. jim was told an unconfirmed report of another air hi-jacking. we share this with you not in an attempt to exacerbate what is a terrible situation but so much has come true paced on the early reports that we want you to have as much information as we can possibly get and at the pentagon all people outside told to take cover just moments ago. jim said the skies were leer. >> and another report with a hi-jacking with a plane heading towards washington. that is something that mick heard while at the pentagon and we want to mention the president is en route from florida where he was there to visit an elementary school to talk about literacy. obviously clearly his agenda has changed dramatically.

he will convene a meeting of the national security council as soon as he gets home. colin powell is also on his way back from lema, peru, scheduled to be in bogota, columbia. >> and probably not at the white house, so probably taken to a safe locations and a number of them, some in the hills of virginia as you know, and my guess is that air force one is in the unusual situation of having a fighter plane escort. >> think about the loss of life that we could have seen this morning, if you think about the fact when full the world trade centers hold 50,000 people. no telling how many people were at work before 9:00 this morning and shortly after 9:00 in the other tower and looking at the picture in lower manhattan it appears that terrorists have succeeded in doing what terrorists tried to do in 1993. >> this is war. this is a declaration and an execution of an attack on the united states, two of our most conspicuous symbols of the american system of capitalism

and the pentagon, the headquarters of the most mighty military in the world was attacked today as well. the white house has been evacuated. the state department has been evacuated. financial markets have been immobilized. all flights taking off after these attacks were grounded. >> international flights have been sent to canada. >> it turns out it is transatlantic flights going to kansas canada now. >> great chaos and still untold loss of life and it is going to be horrendous. we don't know yet what the exact numbers are. we can only tell you by looking at the pictures that you can guess as well as we can that there are going to be a lot of people not going to be able to escape this. >> back in 1993 when the bomb blew up in the basement of the world trade center so many survivors talked about how long it took them with no power and elevators to walk down the smoke-filled stairways and you think about how many people still trying to escape those buildings, the first one and then the second tower collapsed.

>> of course the triage unit that has been set up, area hospitals all receiving victims and as matt said 50,000 capacity when everybody is in the building, but many people at 8:42 a.m. here in new york are at their desk working in their offices and one man was reached by phone and was asked what is happening there and he said we are blanking dying here and there was screaming and yelling and pure chaos understandably going on in the background. >> there is a picture of lower manhattan, ladies and gentlemen, the most important city in the world in so many ways and now it has been attacked by terrorists at the world trade center, and the damage is beyond our ability to tell you in great detail. >> i was going to say here is what the president said. he canceled an education appearance in florida. here is what he said just a short time ago. >> ladies and gentlemen, this is a difficult moment for america. i unfortunately will be going

back to washington after my remarks. secretary rod paste, lieutenant governor, will take the podium and discuss education. i want to thank the folks here at the booker elementary school for their hospitality. today we have had a national tragedy. two airplanes have crashed into the world trade center in an apparent terrorist attack on our country. i have spoken to the vice president, to the governor of new york, to the director of the fbi, and have ordered that the full resources of the federal government go to help the victims and their families and to conduct a full scale investigation to hunt down and to find those folks who committed this act. terrorism against our nation will not stand. now if you join me in a moment of silence.

>> that was george w. bourbon hour ago speaking from long boat key florida. he is en route to washington, d.c. we are looking at pictures on the ground of apparently some of the victims. let's go to pat dawson if he can hear us. he is on the ground. >> quite extraordinary. these are the emergency workers coming back. just about ten minutes ago that we described to you the possibility of that north tower collapsing, about five minutes after we off the air it did collapse. we have no idea at this point the loss of life. i can only tell you there were hundreds of emergency workers down there about five or six blocks. it took probably about i would say no more than 50 or 60 seconds for that dust cloud, dust and smoke to literally make it five or six blocks up here and begin to envelope us at which point we started to move out of the way. there were literally dozens and

dozens of firemen who are trying to run past us and in fact our cameraman even -- the people you see here are pretty much all emergency workers, many of them i have seen in the last two to three minutes quite frankly are coming out of here and remember this, these are professionals, they're coming out of there looking literally stunned, in shock many of them, struggling for breath, obviously in serious distress, breathing problems the biggest problem for those who manage to make it safely out that far area down below us. you can't see much more than a block south of me right now. the world trade center probably stands about ten blocks south of where i am at this moment. as you can see the dust is beginning to pick up here. it really depends on which way the wind blows as to whether or not we get heavy dust or not. at this point i can tell you that in the first few minutes

emergency workers were trying to get out of there, to survive. you can see that written in their faces. the situation was so desperate they just wanted to get out of there. now many of them are beginning to regroup. a couple asked me where the commander might be. they're trying to get together and go back in there and try to take care of the people who obviously are in serious trouble. no other way to describe it. the language here at times if i slip into language that is mellow dramatic, forgive me but this is a circumstance which is very, very difficult to describe in many ways without sounding mel dramatic and certainly in more than 20 years of covering horrific events, this is something that i have never seen before. as we say the emergency workers trying to gather themselves over there. you can see a police emergency service unit trying basically now to re-establish some kind of safe perimeter and many of the emergency workers basically just happy to be alive. certainly that picture tells it

all. many of them just happy to be alive at this point. having survived what is an extraordinary event, the collapse of two towers. as we said earlier in our report 110 stories each. i will tell you that what fell, what i saw fall had to be at least 40, 50 stories of that building at first and the skeleton was left at about i would say the 50 or 60th floor after the shell, after the structure of the building fell down, the skeleton, the steel skeleton was literally shirred off and took probably about another 30 seconds before the skeleton collapsed into the street. that was the last we saw of the world trade center. that was maybe ten minutes ago when that final skeleton, the metal skeleton collapsed into the street. >> that was pat dawson standing ten blocks from where the world trade center towers used to stand. you're looking at the collapse of one of those towers. we now have an a.p. news alert

out of pittsburgh. officials at somerset county, airport, are confirming the crash of a large plane north of airport, about 80 miles southeast of pittsburgh. again, officials at somerset county airport confirm the crash of a large plane north of the airport which is located about 80 miles to the southeast of the city of pittsburgh. we do not know whether that crash of that plane is related to what has become an obvious terrorist attack both here in new york city and in washington, d.c. at the pentagon. >> matt, we just got word the state department security officials are denying those reports of a car bomb at the state department. betsy stewart is at the c street entrance and says there is no sign of a car bomb. betsy stewart is one of our producers very familiar with the state department. the building is evacuated. top officials are still in the operations center.

the president is on his way back. he will have a national security council meeting we think probably at around 11:30 or perhaps around noon. that is likely to take place either at andrews air force base or a more secure location. the white house has been evacuated, especially with this report of another plane going down, this time in the pittsburgh area. there were planes in the air when the order went out there would be no more take offs, so we don't know how much more damage the terrorists had in mind. >> let's go to bob hager, the aviation expert. bob, what kind of information are you getting from your sources? >> not a lot, katie, from the faa. they're not talking about any possible hijacking that normally they can tell when there is a hijack in progress because the pilot, the original pilot of the plane has various buttons he can push that set off a code and tell them there were hi jacks but maybe as a matter of security they're not saying anything about that.

they did stop all take offs in the u.s. at 9:25 this morning, and then for pilots in the air the question came up what to do about them and they were given discretion to continue onto their destination so long as it was not the new york or washington area or divert to an airport if that's what they wanted to do. i personally i saw the blast at the pentagon, not take place but moments after and i had been at national airport trying to get to new york and you could see the smoke billowing out of the pentagon and i can give you a description of what it is like on the streets of washington. it was quite crowded trying to work my way back here to nbc. they have given not only the white house and those key buildings like the u.s. capitol but at this point they have given all federal employees the word to leave their offices and get home. there are traffic jams in washington. >> bob, i am sure you will get more information momentarily. first we to want go to jim at the pentagon. >> they're still clearing people

away from the pentagon, still security forces believe there may be another incoming plane headed in the washington region. there was a very telling dramatic moment just a second ago when a u.s. air force f-16 flew very low level, did a wide sweeping turn around the pentagon and back over washington. as one air force officer standing near me said, my god, they're now flying air cover over washington, a very dramatic moment, a milestone in what tom already described as a declaration of war, terrorist war against the u.s. >> let's go back and show you the pictures of lower manhattan where the situation only gets worse, not better, that is the financially district of the world, also a residential area and great commercial area and both twin trade tower buildings now have collapsed onto the ground. there is an untold loss of life. the ripple effect goes on with all of the smoke and dust that spread out across the very densely populated area. it goes down below ground as

well as in the high rise beli e buildings there. some heroic rescue workers were down trying to get people out of the building when first building came down and then the second building did as well. without any sound and looking at this, there is a surreal quality. that is the epicenter of a great, great national tragedy and a great loss of life and no question about it this morning. >> we were talking about people who were hurt and perhaps killed in this blast and many of them brought to area hospitals including st. vincent's hospital. bob bazell is there. what's the latest? >> ambulances continue to stream in. several new york city streets are closed, major avenues closed off so that ambulances can continue to come in. in addition, the new york city subway system has been closed down and several buildings that were not involved in the world trade center area have been shut down and people have been told to go home. a lot of them are wandering

aimlessly on the street and openly weeping and hugging each other. this clearly is a time as tom described very close to the beginning of a war, and the casualties do keep coming in. burns, smoke inhalation very severe and the medical people that i have talked to say this is just the tip of the iceberg. we expect casualties to be coming in all through the night and way into tomorrow and beyond. >> if you can stand by for a moment. we have this report from a.p. i will read. a large plane crash tuesday morning just north of the somerset county airport 80 miles southeast of pittsburgh. they say the plane believed to be a boeing 767 crashed around 10 a.m. eight miles east of jenners town according to 911 dispatchers. the crash came the same morning the terrorists crashed two planes into the world trade center in new york city and they

collapsed. it spread fear across the nation. there was no other immediate details on the pennsylvania crash, and it was not clear whether the crash was related to the others. again, that was a report, a bulletin just issued by the associated press. >> you know what is so stunning about all of this is there has been no, no indication whatsoever that this very carefully coordinated massive attack was going to occur. there has been a complete intelligence failure here. there will be obviously down the road a price onto pay for that. >> that's not all that surprising, tom. we have often talked in the past following every terrorist event about how vulnerable the united states is and many terrorist experts say how unprepared they are and the question of course is can you ever prepare for an attack like this? >> that's true. we also have people out there who are in listening post and penetrated thighs organizations and to have this kind of attack, this sophisticated, this sufficient, striking at the heart of the nation's capital,

at the heart of new york city, now if this is true that this plane went down as a result of this attack, we don't know whether it is the end of it. this is a massively well coordinated attack of some kind that is nothing short of a declaration of war on this country. >> and experts are saying and intelligence experts are saying there is very few number of terrorist groups that are capable of this kind of planning and a couple of names come to mind and i am not going to throw them out now. we certainly don't have any reports. before i go to jamie, i want to say some of the description from eyewitnesss in lower manhattan of these explosions occurring are chilling. one man talked about getting off a path train in lower manhattan and looking up at the building after the first explosion and seeing people jump out of the windows. we have no idea how high up. hearing people on the ground scream each time another person jumped out a window attempting to get to safety and then when the second explosion occurred he felt the heat of the explosion on the back of his neck.

jamie is now joining us on the phone. >> speaking of the intelligence officials you were just mentioning, now finally we can no longer reach on the phone anyone at the cai. apparently the cia is evacuated. we know the national security agency which is the electronic eavesdropping agency which is baltimore near fort meade, maryland, they're shut down. what we're hearing from both places all non-essential personnel have been told to leave. i can only imagine probably they are trying to move some of their operations out of those buildings as well for backup procedure but in addition to whatever intelligence was or was missed in all of this, we now have perhaps some problems gathering intelligence as those buildings are now being shut down. >> right, jamie. thank you very much. let's go back and talk about something you mentioned a second

ago, just shows the enormousness of this situation and in addition to horrendous loss of life. all planes in this country have been grounded. you think about the impact that has. is there ever a time we can imagine something like that ever happening before? >> the most powerful nation in the world and national security officials and terrorist experts have been saying for some time a small band of very willful and sophisticated people can bring us to a halt and they have done just that. there is a psychological terror as a result of all of this as you can only imagine how it plays out across the country today, people looking in that don't live in new york or the nation's capital are wondering what happens around me? it is hard to over state the consequences of all of this and this is just the beginning. we'll be living with this story and dealing with the consequences of it for some time. the united states will change as a result of all of this. we already thought that there was a lot of security in america at the airports and so on and

yet there was a successful hijacking at boston airport today and the consequences of that we're seeing on the screen here this morning. this is going to change this country profoundly in not just the coming days but the coming months to say nothing as you have been saying of the horrific loss of life. >> on that subject, to complete a thought i started before, you both were out at the building in oklahoma city, a much smaller building and it took rescue workers more than a week to find all the people trapped. we have two buildings here, each 110 stories and it is mind-boggling to think of what it will take over the next days and weeks to find survivors or victims of these explosions. >> of course it continues to be a terrifying situation because there are a number of planes up in the air as this took place and a number of unconfirmed and frightening reports about those planes that we laerd earlier

that somebody had gotten word at the pentagon that perhaps there is another plane, whether they're talking about the one north of pittsburgh or it is completely unclear, and it is also unclear whether these planes en route to a destination have been grounded themselves. in other words, emergency landings or what. i think it is difficult to get any communication with airports all across the country because they are i am sure completely chaotic. >> katie, you know from your time in oklahoma city and the time you spent with the victims there, the psychological effect of all of this on this country and how it will affect our whole sense of security and innocence about america and it couldn't happen here. >> i have never witnessed

anything this horrific. we have seen these types of things play out in movies and worse case scenarios and dramatic renditions of this kind of incident but certainly no one has ever seen this kind of thing unfold and it is really shocking. >> we want to go now on the phone we have neil livingston, an expert on terrorism. mr. livingston, can you hear me? >> i can. >> we were talking about what it would take in terms of planning and coordination to pull off an attack like this with so many prongs, at least two attacks here in new york city, one in washington, d.c. we don't know if the crash of the plane outside pittsburgh is related but give me an idea of how many groups there are in the country that would be capable of something like this. >> there are very few groups in the world capable of this kind of action. you have to remember also we have the people who hijack these planes going to a certain death as well, so they were suicide bombers in effect and that probably suggests that this was

not something like the cartel or one of the other groups that has the financial wherewithal and the infrastructure to carry out coordinated attacks. i think that obviously the finger of suspicion and we're always very cautious about pointing that at any particular direction, but if we have to look to the middle east and osama bin laden and we have to look at some palestinian groups right now. >> even in the past talking about osama bin laden and his group, there have been intelligence experts who picked up conversations, transmissions, that occurred before an attack to give some kind of indication, even if we didn't understand until after the attack. is it unusual with so many prongs to an attack there wouldn't have been some type of warning through intelligence sources? >> well, it is a myth that we always know these things are coming down. part of our problem is and we just had a warning go out to the military bases in the far east,

that could have been a faint, a day version. we have so many warnings these days, people, that they tend to fade into the back ground noise unless we have real specific information about an upcoming attack. generally we don't take action and these groups are very hard to penetrate and they're focussed with bonds of kin ship and people that have known each other for years so it doesn't surprise me that we didn't know this was coming. >> mr. livingston, thank you very much. we appreciate it. >> benjamin levy is at the scene near the world trade center and will tell us precisely where he is and what he saw. can you hear me? >> hello. >> hello, benjamin. >> yes. >> it is katie couric. can you tell me where you are and what you have seen or what you are seeing? >> i am in lower manhattan. i was working -- i work at the federal building behind city hall, and we were just sitting at our desks about 9 a.m. and heard a big explosion and then

about five minutes or ten minutes later we saw the other plane hit the building, the second tower, and then we just evacuated. as we started to walk away, we turned around about maybe 15 minutes after we left the building, and the second tower just disappeared from sight. i tell you, i have never seen anything more horrible in my life. >> did you see any people, any casualties, mr. levy? >> we bumped into a guy from tower one who said that he had a chance to get out of the building after the plane hit the first one and had a chance to get out of the second one and he said that people were jumping out of the windows to get away from the fire. >> where are you now, benjamin? >> i am in a hair salon in lower manhattan talking to you guys. >> obviously that was -- >> and was the whole federal building evacuated, mr. levee? >> we started running out of the

building as soon as we saw the second explosion, and then i work on the 22nd floor. as soon as we were down to the bottom they sounded the alarm and announced evacuation and most of us were already out. >> how far physically are you actually from the world trade center. >> right now or where i work? >> when this happened. >> six blocks away. >> six blocks away. you were able to get out easily and there were no electrical problems in your building as a result of the impact of the fire or anything like that? >> we got out pretty good thank god. >> as the whole area down there, the city hall, the federal building, and all of the other commercial buildings, they have all been evacuated as well? >> yeah. as we were leaving the police were telling all the shop owners to shut the shop sdps go home. >> that must be enveloped by smoke and dust and everything that we see now because that covered the entire lower end of manhattan which is a consider apply large area not only physically but in terms of the financial networks, the commerce in there, a lot of residential areas. >> you could smell the smoke.

you could smell it. we were walking away from it. >> thank you so much for talking with us. we appreciate it and glad you're safe. >> katie, i have a rundown if i can for just a moment about what's going on around the country. the state department officials moved into the training center in arlington, virginia, and minneapolis, st. paul shut down, georgia, haul flights at hartsfield atlanta international airport closed, the cnn world head center closed to the public, in maryland officials tightening security throughout the state. of course that's the home of andr.

california on the highest alert in los angeles, the department of energy, nuclear weapons and research complex in oakridge, tennessee, put under heightened securi security. 50 or 60 doctors standing by in scrubs and the entire entrance to the emergency room lined with stretchers covered with white sheets. doctors say the victims mostly had burns. >> of course being treated in a number of area hospitals including st. vincent's, nyu, downtown, just about five minutes away as the spokesperson told us earlier and have had a lot of experience dealing with problems at the world trade center from that february terrorist bombing in 1993.

obviously they have all been mobilized and emergency crews are working feverishly outside the world trade center. >> you are looking at a live picture of lower manhattan at 11:00 east coast time on a day of tragedy and terror in the united states. are you looking at what remains of the world trade center in lower manhattan. earlier this morning just before 9:00 and just after 9:00 two planes, individual attacks, struck each tower of the world with trade center causing gaping holes in both towers. you're looking at a tape after the first impact. there is the second impact of a large jet flown we now believe deliberately into the second tower. it was a short time after that that the towers collapsed.

then there was an attack in washington, d.c. we now have confirmed reports a plane crashed into the pentagon. we have no reports of confirmed injuries or death. however, it is clear officials all across the country are saying this is a deliberate terrorist attack on the united states as tom has put it so far this morning, this is a declaration of war by terrorists against the united states. >> before we talk about terrorism, another large plane crashed as well just north of somerset county airport, 80 miles southeast of pittsburgh, pennsylvania. it was a boeing 767 that crashed around 10:00 this morning, and it is unclear whether the crash was related to the other crashes that took place this morning. >> president bush is en route back to washington. the state department has been evacuated. there is the attack on the pentagon. that has been evacuated. the white house has been evacuated.

there will be an emergency meeting of the national security council. this is the most serious attack on the united states since pearl harbor. there has never been a terrorist attack of this magnitude in fact on any country in the world so far as we can tell. the untold loss of life in new york alone, we only know there are hundreds of burn victims brought to various hospitals, both twin trade tower centers have collapsed to the ground. that's a densely populated area obviously. we don't know the number of casualties yet at the pentagon, and we don't know the number of deaths in that plane that went down as katie pointed north of pittsburgh. >> what we left out a piece of information and we know for a fact that one of these planes that was crashed into the world trade center was hi jacked from boston this morning. it was american airlines flight 11 en route from boston to los angeles. we had reports it had been diverted to jfk and a short time later perhaps while feigning a

landing it veered dramatically into the world trade center. >> all air travel is stopped, airports closed across the country to planes departing in terms of planes enroute. it is unclear if they made emergency landings or reaching their final destinations. the white house is evacuated. the state department, the c.i.a. evacuated. many buildings in manhattan and lower manhattan evacuated as well. >> transatlantic flights to this country are being diverted to canada. no claim of responsibility that is verifiable or credible at this time. yasser arafat condemned this attack saying it is shocking and apauling. >> of course we should mention back in february of 1993 was when the bomb went off in the garage of the world trade center killing six people, injuring 1,000 people. that of course was an ub believable scene. compared to this, it seems -- >> what they intended to do back

then. >> let's go to bob hager with information for us. >> i was thinking as you commented there about the various planes involved, the one we know so far because it is confirmed by american airlines is the flight 11 which had been scheduled from boston's logan airport to logan, hijacked this morning and presumed it may have been one of the plane that is went into one of the towers at the world trade center. there were at least two more planes involved in this because the other tower was hoit and then the pentagon was also eyewitness accounts that it was a plane that went into the pentagon but so far we don't know the sources of those planes, whether they were commercial planes that had been hijacked, whether they were private planes, whether they rob hijacked at all. i would point out the report from somerset county, pennsylvania, is so far just local authorities commenting. the faa has not confirmed that crash, so we're waiting to hear more and i am hearing just

now -- faa is now confirming, so this adds to the earlier rumors there are several airplanes that are unaccounted for, so there were some rumors that there might have been other planes hijacked that we didn't yet know the outcome of it, and now the faa is confirming that there are several is the word i heard, several planes unaccounted for that were evidently hijacked and has not come to conclusion yet. >> we would like you to get a list of as many of those as you can and specifically as possible. we are going to replay a tape of the second attack on the world trade centers in slow motion. there is the plane as you can see, a large airline type plane now the collision. flown deliberately into the second one.

>> when they say several, any indication what they're talking? >> that is the description i had just passed onto me a moment ago. i wasn't talking personally to the faa person. several is the account i had. >> they were supposed to be adding comment to this from dulles airport here in a few moments. we might learn more about that. right now it is very important to worry about rumors and so forth and like to hear more confirmation that a plane really has crashed in pennsylvania, for instance, since the faa hasn't confirmed that. i think one needs to be careful in this chaotic situation. >> we have a report here that osama bin laden who is often identified as the world's leading terrorist warned three weeks ago he and his followers would carry out an unprecedented attack on u.s. interests for the

support of israel and arab journalists with access said to him tuesday in london. >> the editor of the london based newspaper said the islamic fundamentalists led by osama bin laden was almost certainly behind the attack of the world trade center in new york. it is most likely the work of islamic fundamental lists. he warned three weeks ago he was attack american interests. >> that is the first report that we have had that osama bin laden may have been responsible. obviously it was a very sophisticated organization, carefully coordinated. it had to have its origins in this country and louie, the fbi director as he left office and he said his great concern are the number of terrorist cell that is exist in america, not just in a shadowy enclave in

afghanistan but they have taken root in this country because it is so easy to get here. >> let's talk more about osama bin laden. he was associated with the 1993 world trade center bombing. why don't we talk about him and what he has done here in the united states to give people a little background. >> well, he is from saudi arabia originally. he is wealthy. he is very sophisticated in terms of using the new technology. we believe that he is being harbored in afghanistan. no one knows for sure. a number of people attempted to get to him and have been unsuccessful in that. they also believe he was behind the bombings in kenya as well. he is obviously a zealot of great, dark passion and most of it directed at the united states. >> brian jenkins, our terrorist expert remains on the phone. tell us more about osama bin laden and if you think that he might in fact have carried out this kind of well-orchestrated

horrific attack on the united states. >> certainly he would have to be included in any very short list of suspects, but it is premature to be able to say with any confidence who might be responsible and something like this, we know what happened, we know where it happened, who and why it takes a little bit longer to and i have no doubt we will ultimately be able to identify who is responsible. until that time we can only speculate. >> in an attack of this magnitude so carefully coordinated and executed with such cold blooded efficiency, obviously had to be a sophisticated organization. >> this took organization and while organization has and terrorism in recent years become more fluid, that is we're not dealing with the identifiable terrorist organization that we dealt with in the 1970s and

'80s, the terrorism in the last decade has been a lot more fluid and from these universes of like-minded fanatics people are able to put together the ad hoc conspiracy, nonetheless the magnitude of this attack, the coordination involved in this does indicate a considerable amount of planning and organization. >> if you hold for a second, i want to go back to bob hager of nbc. apparently we don't have bob at the moment. >> sooner or later we will know who did this. where does law enforcement start? we know in several cases we're talking about the plane as the weapon. where do we track who is responsible? >> well, matt, i think someone said this is unprecedented and

law enforcement will start from the base of intelligence they already have and hopefully always have and that's the argument in the country and we have a very short memory in the united states and maybe that's good and maybe it is bad. and that's why we need effective law enforcement although in a free society as brian jenkins points out and i agree totally, it is very difficult to stop things like this. the first goal would have been to stop this horrific event and of course the second goal now is to save as many people as we can km and find who did it and thirdly and most importantly not let this happen again. >> if you were starting the investigation where would you begin? >> i would probably have 100 courses of action taken simultaneously. i am sure that's what's going on as we speak. it is chaos.

i just look at the twa tragedy and why we responded the way we did. we were heightened threat for terrorism and sure looked like terrorism and this is so much bigger than that. it is chaotic. they're trying to make sense and obviously not let something happen again in the next ten minutes, the next hour, the next two hours, so that's on the mind of public safety officials in washington and locally. of course a long range plan to see what we can do about stopping this. we live in a free society. people come and go. borders are open. we see that talked about on the news every night and not so much from a terrorism standpoint but from a work standpoint but people landed on major airports every day undocumented, so it is extremely difficult as brian point out earlier. these terrorist cells are very insulated from each other and there is no particular hierarchy like there was in the mafia where you put a particular wiretap at the top and you know

everything that's going on. that's not the case here. we know there is tremendous hatred. they tried to bring the world trade center. they have blown up many other government symbols and trying to blow up 11 jumbo jets simultaneously. >> it is katie couric. we want to go to pat dawson down at the world trade center with an official talking to that official. >> joe, go ahead. you can imagine this is a difficult situation here. this is chief william hall, the port authority police of new york as we told you earlier. they have jurisdiction over the trade center and allen rice, the director of the world trade center. if i can get to you stand like

that. first of all, chief, do we have any idea how many people are in there? >> we have no idea. as you know, it was pretty much rush hour that this took place this morning. the numbers, we don't know yet. we tried to get almost everybody out we could early on. >> after the first two crashes when the praens hit the building, there was roughly about i would say what an hour, hour and 15 minutes between that and the point where the south tower collapsed. >> give or take. >> how many people were you able to get out? do you have any idea? >> we don't know. we tried to do a floor by floor search and the best they could tried to get everybody out. as you know, there were people still coming out after the building came down. >> do you have any idea how many people would normally be in the building at 8:30? >> 10,000 people in each tower, 10,000 people in each tower typically on a normal business day and we get about another 5,000 visitors during the rs ko of the entire day, so by 8:30,

9:00, the building should have been full. >> in other words, by 8:30 to 9 you figure the building would have been approaching full capacity with the workers, so we are talking about roughly 10,000 people. >> per tower. >> per power. >> now, at this point obviously you have a situation at these towers having collapsed that is bordering on ka tchaotic. i have seen emergency workers try to go in after the first couple crashes and what are you trying to do now. >> i guess the next step is between the chief and myself and my staff we'll assess the condition and determine whether it is safe or not to send personnel into the building to continue looking and evacuating people. >> are there any emergency workers in there now? >> we don't know that. >> if they were they would be trapped in there. >> yes. we were trapped ourselves in a

basement and the building collapsed and we came out and yes. >> you were in the basement of the south tower. >> we were in the basement of a building six. >> i was in building five. we had to dig our way out to get out. >> dug your way out. what was it like? >> scary. >> scary but you learn not to panic. >> what was the one last thing? what do you do right now to try to get to those people how long before you get to those people? >> we'll have to wait and make the building safe. we have our engineers here and we will make the building safe and send in rescue teams and already breaking the men up at the rescue teams and ready to go and once the building is declared safe and what's left. >> how soon before they're back in there. >> we will try to do this now and i hope soon. >> is any part of the building still standing down there? we can't really see. >> i can't see either. i don't know. >> you don't know how much of the building is left. >> no. we're going now to assess the condition. >> we understand you have emergency work to do. we appreciate you very much taking the time out.

that's the latest report we have. at this point from those who are in charge of that building speaking to the director of the world trade center and also to the chief of the port authority police and they are at this point as they said just trying to put together a plan to go in there and just assess the damage. this sequence of extraordinary tragedies, this sequence of catastrophes really, first the two crashes and then in sequence one tower of the building coming down, another tower of the building coming down, and obviously the first order of business is to try to organize themselves and to go back in there in a way that doesn'ten danger more workers. the toll has to be extraordinary. >> thank you very much, pat dawson. those are the first numbers we have had this morning. they think there were about 20,000 people in the two buildings at the time of the attack, to say nothing of the untold number of people on the streets or in nearby buildings,

who could also have suffered injuries or worse from the buildings did come down and this is tantamount to war. you're looking at the lower end of manhattan, a plane attacked the pentagon this morning as well. there is a report much a hijacked plane that went down near pittsburgh and robert hager is tracking this. >> there is some more information now on the one confirmed hi-jacking that we know of and that was that american airlines flight number 11. it was a 767, took off from boston logan this morning and was to go to los angeles and american airlines confirmed it was hijacked and we have first numbers on how many were on board. 58 passengers and the crew of 11, so 69 people on that flight and that's presumed to be one of the planes that went into one of towers of the world trade center. the other planes that we know of, the other tower of the world trade center and the plane that went to the crashed into the pentagon area, those are unknown

flights. the pennsylvania crash which is still not the faa but local authorities saying it, our affiliate in pittsburgh has heard traffic on the radio scanners saying that it was a flight that originated in chicago and was headed to cleveland but i would caution that sort of information coming off radio scanners is very, very sketchy and so very unreliable and the first report off the scanners. >> an fbi spokesman is quoted as saying there were four flights that were hijacked altogether. we know about american 11. i won't mention the names of the carriers or the numbers on the others. are you getting any detail like that at the faa? >> no. the faa is not getting into you that detail and a moment ago i said they said there were several planes still in the air and that report was coming to me while i was on the air. getting it secondhand. now i understand what they were saying and is that they had unaccounted flights, flights that were unaccounted for so that could mean in addition to

the american airlines flight 11 the other plane that is went into the other buildings, does not necessarily imply there are still planes in the air. more information, canada has now shut all of its airports down but it will leave the airports open to allow incoming planes that were bound for the u.s. and now prohibited from u.s. airports to divert into canada and otherwise canada is allowing no take offs and not taking inbound flights from any other place >> now we get world from american airlines. stay with us. it had two aircraft in this tragedy, flight 11, a boeing 767 with 81 passengers, nine flight attend ands and two pilots and flight 777, operating from washington dulles, 58 passengers, four flight attendants and two pilots. that's from al hankel, one of our guys in the dallas area from american airlines >> now we know the identity of

two flights involved in today's incidents, and that leaves at least one more and if the report of the crash in pittsburgh is accurate, that leaves two more we don't have identified yet and gives us those two that you mentioned. >> could have been both of th e

these. >> where did this report come from? >> came in over our radios and reported to us from the supervisors on down. we're pulling everybody back. >> that's in the high school there. >> yes. >> thank you very much. >> that school has been evacuated? >> i am sorry? >> that school has been evacuated. >> i don't think there was anyone in the school, katie, this morning. i at this point think everybody had been evacuated from here

probably when the first events took place early this morning and just because of the fact that it is so close to the world trade center and most of these buildings around here have been evacuated so i would imagine, i never saw any kids going into that school this morning, so i am going to presume that they never even allowed them to get to school this morning and that any that were here at 8:45 were probably moved out almost within moments after this crash took place because it literally is only about 10 blocks north of here and i haven't seen any students coming in or out. >> thank you very much. the big story obviously still to be resolved is how many planes were hijacked. we have a report that there could have been as many as four of them. we know that two planes were involved here at the twin trade towers, a report of a plane down north of pittsburgh and another kind of plane went into the pentagon and there could still be planes in the air that are under the control of hijackers. we don't know for sure what flights they are or where they're headed. there are unconfirmed reports of

them. we can only tell you american 11 and american 77 have been identified by american airlines as two of the planes involved in the incidents today. >> and the hi-jackings are scattered somewhat around a fairly wide area and two of these planes did arrive at the world trade center within 18 or 20 minutes of each other, just to again point out the coordination of this attack. we'll go to tim russert standing by with more information. tim. >> apparent tim can't hear us. >> i can hear you now. can you hear me? >> please give your information. >> just speaking to the chairman of the house intelligence committee and trying to get him on the telephone and continue the conversation on the air. he told me he was on the phone with house speaker hassert when a code red was declared on the

hill and they have been moved to a secure place. congressman porter goss, the chairman of the intelligence committee also said this extr e extremely well coordinated attack could only be done by very few people, very few organizations and base of the magnitude of it, it will be relatively easy to, quote, see their fingerprints and then we as a nation are going to have to make a very decisive retaliation as soon as we are able to identify exactly who this was. mr. goss obviously has never seen anything quite like this. as it plays out, perhaps more to come and he will joining shortly on the telephone so we can hear his words directly. he will be briefed throughout the day because of his position and he is has access to the nation's utmost secrets. >> tim, obviously president bush is on his way back to the nation's capital. is it your understanding that he has arrived yet or do you know his whereabouts at this point? >> katie, i do not know that.

i do know while the white house has been evacuated, the situation room continues or people in the white house doing their jobs and so at the pentagon. in the nerve centers of both of those facilities, our highest ranking officials are obviously monitoring the situation and making a determination how widespread the attack may be and trying very, very hard to get a handle on exactly who did it and just how we respond. >> we have secure areas obviously for the president in case of a nuclear attack in the past in the mountains of virginia, not too far from washington by helicopter ride. any indication that the president may have to go to one of those facilities? >> we have not yet heard that. i asked that question and the response was we're not going there meaning responding to my question and not necessarily traveling there. they obviously are on the highest state of alert and they understand the magnitude of this and they understand that the american people now are going to be waiting and watching for a response from washington and other than what the president gave in florida, and as you

might expect, even our most sophisticated communications 2001 era, it is still extremely difficult trying to get any kinds of information. cell phones are down. many of the hard lines are down. i have been assured by people at the white house and at the pentagon that in fact they are in touch with each other and have the situation as under control as best they can and but like all of us, they simply don't know yet who did this. >> you talked about porter goss. obviously the capital was evacuated along with other major monuments and major government buildings in washington. where are the members of congress right now. >> after the explosion at the world trade center, congress convened, said a prayer and recessed and many of the members headed home. they were obviously going to

look toward forward to a difficult week many it washington dealing with the economy. i am old porter goss is on the telephone with me. congressman, can you hear me? can you hear me? we'll continue to effort that. most of the congressmen and women have returned to their homes in washington because the building itself has been evacuated. the leadership of the congress has i mentioned speaker of the house particularly is in a secure place and he will be in constant communication with the president and vice president and being third person in the hierarchy. >> all right. tim russert in washington, thanks very much. when you get porter goss on the phone maybe you can give us more information. thanks, tim. >> we'll be right back. >> let's go to msnbc ashley banfield in lower manhattan standing by with people either inside those buildings or near the buildings when those planes hit. ashley. >> hi. i am just about five and ten blocks north of the actual site of where the two towers have come down.

we're having a bit of trouble maintaining our location because we just heard one more explosion. that's about the fourth one we have heard. the police are telling us they're either car bombs or they are simply cars that over heated so much they're exploding. every time one happens there is a flurry of activity and there are more emergency vehicle that is come down this and i don't know if you can shoot past me into that cloud there. that is the enclose you had that we were in just about 45 minutes ago or so. at the time we were there when the first trade tower came down, my producer and i were overcome by the cloud of debris and smoke that came at us so rapidly we had to break down a window to an apartment building. we had to break the window and go into the second door inside to breathe. we were followed by a police officer and a security guard from the world trade center area. i want to show you something if i can. there are no cell lines coming out of manhattan at the time. see if you can zero in on this right here. this is the debris we're seeing all over the ground. you can see the address.

1 world trade center. >> obviously technical problems with ashley banfield who is on the ground near the world trade center about five blocks away. >> here is the first confirmation from united airlines confirming one of its flights clashed in the pittsburgh area, originating in newark, bound for san francisco. no information on how many people were on board the 757 carrying a lot of folks. anyone who has flown from newark to san francisco knows those carry a full load. >> this brings to three the number of confirmed flights involved in this tragic day, american airlines flight 11 from boston to los angeles, flight 77 from washington dulles to los angeles with 58 passengers on board and now the united flight you mentioned and you can say that we have to say that the number of passengers was relatively low on those first flights and we can only hope this was not a full flight, this

united flight. >> there was a collapse obviously not just of intelligence but of airport security as well that that many planes were hijacked almost simultaneously. >> although these days as we know, tom, and learned from the twa tragedy 800 that oftentimes some of these devices are absolutely it is kpobl to see them in our kind of security x-ray machines that you have at typical airports. some are made of plastics and can be very small and virtually undetectable which is of course another major problem for airport security. we're going to go to bob bazell at st. vincent's hospital. obviously we're very concerned about the people in the world trade center when these two planes crashed into them. bob, tell me about the scene at st. vincent's hospital. >> katie, the wounded are starting to come in and with great regularity now almost every 30 seconds an ambulance pulls up and some of them are very badly burned and i have

seen several dead bodies go in and cardinal eagan is standing outside on the street and giving last rights and may god help us many times over and there has been a call out for blood from all the new york hospitals. people are lined up around the block. people responded in enormous numbers to that. everybody seems to want to help in some way. new york has become surreal on the streets above lower manhattan because all the subways and commuter lines and bridges and tunnels have been shut down so many people who are not injured are wondering around aimlessly. in the hospitals there is so many injured coming in now they have run out of gurneys and brought every office chair they have done and put sheets over that to carry people in. it is an enormous amount of work for the staff and people have come in and everybody off has come in and calls have gone out for specialists, plastic surgeons, burn specialists, and it is going to be a very grueling several days ahead. >> bob, the other thing is i don't know whether you can tell about traffic in the rest of manhattan because a lot of our

major hospitals are well north of there, are the ambulances able to get through? have they cleared the traffic? we're kind of in a tomb in the city of midtown. >> i had trouble hearing you that time. there is a system in place here where there is triaging people in lower manhattan and putting sometimes tags around their neck to show the people you see wondering up from lower manhattan who have only slight injuries and cleared and others are very seriously injured. every hospital in the area is involved in a plan to take in some kind of patients. this one where i am at st. vincent's is one of the closest with the major trauma center, but every hospital is on alert. every hospital is just taking in what is becoming now a sea of patients. >> robert bazell. thanks very much. let's go back to washington and tim russert who has a guest on the phone and porter goss, the head of the house intelligence committee. >> are you there? >> i am here. >> as the chairman of the house

intelligence committee what is your official reaction to what we witnessed this morning? >> obviously i am horrified. we do our best to make sure there are no surprises like this happening to americans at home or abroad. it is never 100% sure and we got the wakeup call again today. it is unbelievable anybody would do an act like this using innocent victims aboard our commercial airliners as weapons against other innocent victims in our big buildings, our symbols of economy and commerce in new york and our defense and legislative and executive buildings here in washington. >> when people are watching this at home, congressman, they're saying to themselves how could this happen in the united states of america, a complete breakdown in our airport security, a complete breakdown in our air space security, over the pentagon, the center of our military command. how could something be this vulnerable? >> we are a free, open democratic society and we take great pride in that. we pay a price for it. we as you know if you have ever

flown into washington national or washington reagan airport you fly right over the pentagon and many times we have commented on how vulnerable the building is for just that reason. that vulnerability was taken as for commercial airliners flying around new york and air space there, obviously they fly near the trade towers. to be able to say that our airport security works 100%, in i object who flies in america knows that's not true. you answer a few questions before you get on the plane and show a photo i.d. that doesn't necessarily mean you can't do mayhem on the plane as we see from time to time. tragically some kind of organization somewhere has orchestrated all of this in an effective fashion. we have great intelligence capabilities out there who keep us constantly on alert about these reports. i can tell i i know of no specific reporting anything of this particular specificity on this day with these targets but i can tell you that we are scrambling all the time to

assess information that would do harm to the united states and its people and as we know we have seen our military installations subject to attack, our embassies subject to attack before. we stop a lot but obviously we won't get it all and we have to rethink how we do business in today's world and deal with these kinds of threats. >> based on your experience as an honored c.i.a. agent and now as a highly respected chairman of the house intelligence committee, how many organizations, terrorist organizations in the world, are capable of pulling off such a coordinated massive attack? >> i would say there is only a handful, if we're not talking about state sponsored terrorism. if you're talking state sponsored it could be more. i don't think we're dealing with state sponsored. i think we're dealing here with a loose network, a loose association of people who have the same goal which is an anti-united states goal and found a way to get together and network and pull this thing off.

part of the problem with terrorism is that one of the weapons of terrorism is confusion. one of the hopes now of course of the terrorists who perpetrated this is we will have lots of confusion in the united states and there will be rumors of other things happening and that will upset how we go about our business and our behavior and how the law enforcement people react and so forth. it is one thing to deal with. another thing to deal with as the president alluded to this morning in the strong statement was that we will respond. the question is against whom? if we want to make absolutely sure when we're dealing with asymmetrical warfare such as this, innocent people by in large, who are victims of this, that we respond appropriately and not provoke any other incidents that are unwarranted in the world but get the people that actually cause this to happen and that requires good information and obviously we're in the process of trying to get that information. >> it may take some time. >> yes, it may. >> and find the fingerprints and launch any kind of retaliation.

>> that is certainly true, and one of the hallmarks we may need is parks these days. >> thank you very much. we'll be contacting you throughout the day and appreciate you joining us this morning. >> thank you. my prayers to the others. >> thank you very much. we're going to talk to someone here in the studio in a second. tom, have you a phone number for people concerned about passengers on board the flights >> american airlines confirmed that two of its flights were hijacked and people that want to know the number is 1-800-245-0999. united headquarters, you may not be able to get through obviously is 847-700-5538. united confirmed one of its planes went down nearby pittsburgh and american said two of its planes were involved in the hi-jackings today. one from dulles and one from boston. >> and apparently united airlines was involved. >> in pittsburgh. >> from newark on route to san

francisco. we're going to go to ashley banfield. >> there we go. ashley banfield. >> we're giving out emergency numbers over the airways. i know. we're doing that now. >> that's the only thing. >> emergency personnel. law enforcement or medical. >> do you know anything about those extra explosion. >> no, i do not. >> are they car bombs? >> no, ma'am. >> what about the sewers? are they looking for bombs in sewers? >> all non-essential personnel. >> obviously the emergency workers are moving people out of that area. ron is here with us in the studio. ron, obviously you were downtown at some point. we see you have basically soot and debris in your air and on your jacket. what happened? >> one of the msnbc camera men and i were trying to get across the street trying to cover the event for nbc and as we were going across the street, we were

not terribly far from the world trade center building and the south to youer and as we were cutting across in a quarantine zone the buildings began to disintegrate and we heard it and looked up and started to see elements of the building come down and we ran and honestly it was a scene out of independence day. everything began to rain down, the winds were whipping through the corridors and i ducked around a corner, got into a car that was open and it was nighttime for several minutes. >> was this the first tower? >> i believe it was the first tower that collapsed. as it was coming down, what that looks like there is mild compared to what it was like to be at the center. it was pitch black for blocks. >> was the smoke as well as dust? >> smoke. dust. i assume it was part of the building coming down and just pieces of a disintegrating building coming down as well. >> we're very concerned about the triage unit set up there to help people trying to get out of the building, ron, to help people carried out of the

building and being treated medically and were you close enough to survey the scene? >> i was about half a block of the building as it started to come down. >> could you tell us what you saw? >> it was fairly clear. there were some areas along the street that did have blood and debris and no longer people in the area except for a couple of journalists and police officers quarantining the area so people wouldn't cut through. >> once it did begin to clear after the several minutes of pitch darkness, what did you see in the streets then? >> it was a deep gray smoke. in honesty it looked like a nuclear winter, the type of thing you see in the movies with ash all over the ground on top of cars and police cars and windows and i made my way into the building because it was the one light i could see and stayed there until a couple of police officers and a few people inside the building were able to get in a vehicle. >> were what the injuries? >> one policeman had a deep cash in his forehead. he was all right. he was clear a bit shocked and a young lady had shrapnel in her

arm and don't know whether it was part of a building or glass from another building. >> was there a lot of peripheral damage to other buildings and because when this building came down one would only imagine all the pieces of steel and concrete that came cascading down as well and hit other places. >> i imagine the collateral damage was enormous. we were probably i would say two or three blocks away in a building where we holed up for a time until we were comfortable it was safe to come out. it was truly the most intense and frightening experience i have ever had in my life. it was literally pitch black on the streets and people were obviously inhaling a great deal of material as well and many folks were having difficulty breathing and wearing facial masks as well. >> glad you're all right. >> united airlines confirms united flight 175 from boston to los angeles is down as well. no details yet. it is confirmed flight 93 we believe from newark to san francisco is down, no details yet. that's the one we think went down in the pittsburgh area.

i wish that we could be more specific. the information is as you might expect pretty chaotic. there have been at least four airliners hijacked today. >> there is going to be an awful lot of scrutiny on the security in boston at logan airport because it appears two of the flights originated there and somehow someone managed to get on the planes and hijack them. >> this is an event, ron, we're happy to see you. >> thank you. have you no idea how happy i am to be here. >> it is a relief and you think